A quick, seasonal pasta that hits all the right notes: sweet cherry tomatoes, tender fava beans, and crispy pancetta, finished with thyme and salty Pecorino. Bright, savory, and ready in under an hour.

Ingredients

• 400 g tagliatelle
• kg fresh fava beans (in pods)
• 180 g pancetta, cut into thin strips
• 300 g Pachino cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 spring onion (scallion), thinly sliced
• 80 g grated Pecorino cheese
• 1 small sprig thyme
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and black pepper

Directions

1. Blanch the fava beans. Shell the fava beans. Blanch them in plenty of salted boiling water for 4 minutes, then drain and cool under running water. Reserve the cooking water to boil the pasta.
2. Crisp the pancetta. In a large pan, cook the pancetta with a drizzle of olive oil until it has rendered its fat and turns crispy. Remove and set aside.
3. Build the sauce. In the same pan, sauté the sliced spring onion for 1 minute. Add the fava beans and cook for 3 minutes. Add the cherry tomatoes and continue cooking, stirring well and gently pressing some tomatoes so they release their juices.
4. Cook the pasta. Bring the reserved fava bean water back to a boil and cook the tagliatelle. Drain very al dente.
5. Finish. Add the pancetta back to the pan and toss everything for a couple of minutes. If it looks dry, loosen with a little reserved cooking water.
6. Season and serve. Adjust salt and pepper (go easy on salt: pancetta + Pecorino are already salty). Add the pasta to the pan and toss to coat. Finish with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, a little thyme, and the grated Pecorino.