Braving The Fava Beans

I'd been angsting about what to do with the fava beans that seemed to be a given in my Red Wagon Organic Farm CSA pickup this week, but when I got there, it turned out they were actually giving me a choice: fava beans or new red potatoes? While the potatoes looked beautiful, there are other options for getting those kinds of staples, and since I'd been pondering the fava beans for days, I took a deep breath and grabbed a bag of them to contend with. I'd already checked my own Chez Panisse pasta cookbook that has some fava suggestions, plus I'd checked out a couple of books from the library for further guidance. (Having gone that far, how could I wimp out and take the potatoes?) So it looks like my first foray into shelling, boiling, then further shelling fava beans will be tomorrow night, with penne with fava beans, basil puree, and parmesan from Patricia Wells' Vegetable Harvest, not originally posted by Wells but copied by several people like this post. This will also give me a chance to finish off one more container of pesto in the freezer from last fall's bounty. If that proves successful and the brief fava bean season continues for a week or two, I might also try the fava bean puree I found in Alice Water's Chez Panisse Vegetables, which sounds like an attractive alternative to the hummus that gets devoured in this house. Interestingly, she notes that fava beans can cause a toxic and even potentially fatal reaction, called favism, in some people of Mediterranean, Asian, or African extraction, although it seems to be associated with undercooked or raw beans. Guess I'll be sure to cook mine a bit extra. Always an adventure.