Soak the fava beans together with the baking soda in around 1.5l of water overnight.

The next day, peel and roughly chop the onion and potato, then roughly chop the carrot and celery sticks. Drain the fava beans, give them a rinse and add them to a large pan along with the chopped veg, bay leaf, tomato paste and water. Bring to a boil, then cover the pan with a lid and cook for 1 ½ hours or until the fava beans are tender and the potatoes have disintegrated, stirring occasionally to avoid the starches sticking to the bottom of the pan (see Notes to use a pressure cooker). Also make sure you have plenty of space left in the pan, otherwise the liquid will rise and boil over. If the pan isn’t large enough, keep the lid ajar and top up the water when necessary.

At this point, the fava beans should have absorbed most of the water but still be just about covered. Season them with the salt and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and cook for another 10 minutes to let the beans absorb the salt. In the meantime, bring a kettle of water to a boil.

Add the pasta straight into the pan with the beans*, add enough boiling water from the kettle to generously cover them and cook for around 10 minutes until they still have a pleasant chew, but no chalkiness in the centre. By now, the leftover liquid should have turned into a creamy sauce, but you can still remove any excess water if necessary.

*Tip: If I intend to keep half of the stew for the next day, I also only cook half of the pasta.

When the pasta is ready, divide the lolli con fave over 4 plates and finish it with some chilli flakes and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.