Recipe: Bigilla
One of my best friends is Maltese. She recently returned from a visit to Malta and has been tempting me with stories of all the food she had. One of the Maltese classics is a dip called bigilla. It is made from dried fava beans, a touch of garlic & hot pepper then spread on bread, on pizza, or possibly just eaten as is. I’m not 100% since I haven’t been to Malta yet. 
After some research and reviewing her family recipe, below is the version I made. We spread it on pizza over a layer of tomato paste. I topped mine with additional veggies, fresh mozarella, and some vegan sausage that I will post about soon. Brad stuck with cheese only. It was very tasty and I’m sure we’ll have bigilla again.
BTW, cooking the fava beans was fascinating and worth doing if you never have. The water they cook in turns dark brown and the scent is incredible! I meant to take a photo of them in their broth but I forgot. 
Ingredients:
- 14 oz. dried fava beans, soaked overnight (also known as broad beans)
- 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 hot pepper, minced (I used a jalapeno)
- handful of parsley, finely chopped
- spoonful of olive oil
- salt & pepper
- Soak the fava beans overnight. Oh I mentioned that above? Well I really meant it! These suckers are tough and need the soaking time, so please don’t skip this step! Replace the water they soak in if/when it becomes murky.
- Put the beans in a pot with fresh water covering them at least an inch. Bring to a boil. Boil the beans 1.5-2 hours. Keep a bit of hot water nearby because you will probably need to add more water as the beans cook. When they are soft and mushy, they are finished – if you aren’t sure, let them keep going.
- Drain the beans but reserve a bit of the cooking liquid.
- Place the beans in a bowl and mash them up. I actually used two knives and sliced them up a bit before I mashed them. This is probably not very authentic.
- Add the other ingredients and season to taste.
- Enjoy on bread or top a pizza with this spread. It would be great on a sandwich also.
