Pasta with faves and ricotta

Pasta with faves, ricotta, and fennel – straight from my mom.

Green faves
If in a can, have to shell them.
But if in a jar, you can see that they are small, green, and no shell – prob. from Greece.

Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil until clear.
Pour faves in that and simmer.

Core fresh fennel and remove outer leaves, cut the very tops off until you get the tender part. Slice up the bulb and the top and all of it and put it in the pasta water – boiling salt water – until it’s fork tender, not mushy. Use a big pot to make this because you’re making a lot of food!

Cook ditalini pasta in the water. Drain the pasta when done and save some of the water – don’t drain it dry, leave it moist.

Dump the faves in the pasta pot, turn the stove back on, add some good ricotta a tablespoon at a time, as much as you want, and then leave it on the stove a bit because the ricotta is cold (from the fridge) and when it’s all warm, it’s done!

Serve with ricotta salata if you have it or parmesan.