Weekly Food Challenge

Traditionally, bigilla is made with dried tic beans. Tic beans are a smaller, darker relative of broad beans, but in this country they seem to be mostly used in animal feed. Like much Maltese cookery, recipes will vary a lot according to family tradition amongst other things. I based my recipe on one from the Food & Cookery of Malta - my go to cookbook when cooking any new-to-me Maltese recipes. However, there are also some recipes on the internet here, here and here. Most recipes seem to suggest adding pretty much all the ingredients raw (aside from the beans), but I decided to cook my garlic and chilli a little before adding to the beans.

I used tinned broad beans rather than dried, because my local supermarket did not have any dried ones. Plus I didn't have to bother soaking them or cooking them for too long.

This recipe makes enough for 4 - 6 people as a starter/snack.

Ingredients
1 1/2 tbsp Olive oil
1 mild red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped
4 large cloves of garlic, minced using a garlic press or finely chopped
2 x 300g tins broad beans, drained and rinsed
Juice of one lemon or 2 tbsps bottled lemon juice
Salt (to taste)
Handful of fresh herbs, finely chopped (I used parsley and mint)

Method
Heat a small amount of olive oil in a pan and very gently fry the chilli and garlic, stirring often, for about 5-10 minutes until soft. Take off the heat once done, but leave in the pan. Meanwhile cook the tinned beans in some water for a few minutes (technically you don't really need to do this bit, as the beans are already cooked, but I decided to heat mine as I thought it might make them easier to mash, plus you can serve this dish warm or cold). Once the beans have cooked for a few minutes, drain and add to the pan with the chilli and garlic. Add the lemon juice, the rest of the olive oil and the salt. Using a fork or a potato masher, roughly mash the bean mixture. Finally, add the mixed herbs and stir it all together.

Serve with toasted bread or crackers. Or for a proper authentic Maltese experience serve with galletti.