fava bean crostini with burrata

Last night, I sat on the living room couch and peeled fava beans while Daniel watched baseball on television. It was actually kind of nice. Watching televised sports often makes me feel fractious and sulky- they always seem to go on forever and the noise makes it difficult for me to read- so it was nice to have something to keep my hands busy for a while. There is something almost meditative about the long process of peeling fava beans...first stripping them from their fuzzy, unwieldy shells, then blanching them, then popping them out of their tough inner skins. At the end, you feel you've accomplished something.

All in all, I peeled two pounds of beans that I ended up using, in part, to make fava bean crostini.

I read about fava bean crostini over on the blog House to Haus last week and I suppose the desire to make them for myself was implanted in my brain. I modified the recipe a bit, adding fresh burrata on top of the crostini instead of shaved parmesan because I had some on hand and thought its creaminess would play well against the brightness of the favas.

And they were delicious- fresh and earthy and intensely green. Between us, Daniel and I managed to polish off nearly a dozen.

I feel like these would make an excellent appetizer for a spring dinner party, since most people aren't crazed enough to spend the better part of an hour prepping beans but are very appreciative if someone else has done the work and whipped them up into something delectable.