This dish is common to all Sicily and Apulia, and the recipe is one of the oldest in Mediterranean gastronomy. Already in existence in Egypt at the time of the Pharoahs, it later was known in Roman plebian cuisine as puls fabata, and has come down to us with only minimal changes. Its Sicilian title is maccu, which comes from ammaccare, a dialect word meaning to crush. Some recipes advise cooking the onion with the beans as described here, others stay closer to the ancient formula and suggest adding the onion raw at the end of cooking. This puree is like a soup, but any that is left over will harden like polenta, and can be sliced and fried, or sauteed with vegetables. In Apulia it also is served to accompany a seafood soup.
