Fava bean-and-artichoke pasta sauce, Maremma-style
( Sugo alla poderana )

The poderana sauce is a typical sauce of Maremma in Tuscany (Italy). It's a spring recipe.
People who live in Maremma are used to toss egg pasta with this sauce. They make egg dough and cut it into large strips. It's called maccheroni in Tuscany.
On the contrary we tasted this sauce tossing a kind of short pasta producted in Tuscany by Giovanni Fabbri. To know more about this pasta brand read our blog.
In the photo you can see tortiglioni by Giovanni Fabbri tossed with poderana sauce.
Obviously you can choose the pasta shape you prefer.

Prepare the ingredients. Prepare the artichokes. Snap off the stalk close to the base, pulling out any fibres which would extend into the bottom. Cut off the pointed top and, using kitchen scissors, trim the leaves to remove spines and any brown edges. Cut every artichokes in quarters and plunge them in lemon water. The artichokes are cleaned to be cooked. If you want more details about cleaning the artichokes read this page.
Peel the onion and cut into great pieces.
Clean and wash the parsley and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
Cut the raw ham into pieces.
Chop all these ingredients finely and pour into a pan together with the olive oil.
Peel and crumble the sausage. Put it apart.
Shell the fava beans and put apart.

Cook the sauce. Saute the artichokes, parsley, onion and ham on low heat, stirring frequently. After few minutes add the sausage and fava beans too. Keep on cooking on low heat, half-covered, stirring now and then. Add some vegetable stock when necessary. We added about 300 ml (10 fl oz - 1 1/4 C) of stock. Ten minutes before switching off the gas you have to add the tomatoes too. At the end season to taste with salt and pepper if you like.

Note

• - This is a spring recipe for fava beans and artichokes are typical spring products. But if you like this sauce you can make it all year using canned or frozen artichokes and fava beans. Obviously you haven't the same result.
• - This sauce is so tasty you can choose it to toss short or long or egg pasta for a real Italian dinner party or for special occasions or celebrations.

What's the right wine for " Fava bean-and-artichoke pasta sauce, Maremma-style "?

Our suggestion is: you shouldn't serve wine for the artichoke presenze. Prefer a good-quality beer.