[Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 27, Issue 41

[Christiane]

I honestly believe that "fasoli" is a variant of fava, from the Roman Phaseoli mentioned by Pliny.
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Today, "fasoli" is the Greek word for fava, and the popular bean stew of Southern Italian origin — which gets slurred into pastafazool — initially was pasta fasoli in some Southern dialects, notably Sicilian and Neapolitan, the strongly Greek-influenced regions of the country (where also today "fasoli" means beans, but it seems to mean beans in general; however, I believe that which bean "fasoli" referred to would vary by region to region and village to village).

There were "white" favas and "black" favas; undoubtedly there were other varieties, heirloom types that no longer exist today. Fasoli could very well refer to one of these specific fava variants. Considering how many different types of favas were cultivated in 18th century Williamsburg, I have no doubt there were just as many varieties being cultivated in medieval Tuscany.

Gianotta