From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
Also black-eyed bean, cowpea, southernpea. This small bean is cream-colored, kidney-shaped and characterized by a black dot and a mild flavor. Despite the second part of its name, it's more closely related to the bean than the pea. Native to India and Iran, it is widely consumed in Africa as well. Black-eyed peas require less soaking than most dried beans. In Italy, a famous painting by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), a Bolognese, is called the Mangiatore di Fagioli, "the bean eater." It depicts a contadino, or farmer, sitting down to eat a big bowl of fagioli dell'occhio, "beans with eyes", and is the first ever known painting to feature black-eyed peas.
