Cicerchia, Bean (Lathyrus sativus)
Italy

Lane Selman, founder of the Culinary Breeding Network, found these beans from a grower who was attending the international Slow Food Terra Madre event and brought them home for Brian Campbell of Uprising Seeds who is obsessed with traditional, heirloom Italian beans. This unusual legume is believed to be among the first cultivated food plants, pre-dating even grain-based agriculture. Once a common peasant food in central Italy, Cicerchia had fallen off the map until interest was recently revived by Slow Food Italy and a presidium dedicated to its revival. Also known as Chickling Vetch, Grass Pea, Khesari, and Almorta, the legume has played an important role in the diets of drought prone regions of the Mediterranean, East Africa, and India for centuries as an “insurance crop” due to its extreme drought tolerance. Cicerchia is delicious, sometimes described as a cross between lentils and chickpeas, hearty and earthy and with tender skin. These beans look like angular little white pebbles.