mint pea pesto

So this I was like pretty proud of. My dad came over and helped me install a window herb garden, which, by the way is totally dying on me. What the hell man? I water them once a day, shouldn't that be enough? WHY IS ALL MY THYME AND BASIL DYING ON MEEEEEE?

Ahem.

What I was saying is that my dad came over to help me install a window herb garden, and because I am not a totally ungrateful daughter, I made him lunch. I saw this recipe for "pea pesto" on smitten kitchen and while I didn't entirely love the sound of it, it did give me the spark of inspiration I needed to make this dish.

sugar snap pea and carrot soup

sugar snap pea and carrot soup

So, with this post, I'll have reached the end of sugar snap pea season. It was definitely a good experience, and opened my eyes to the joy of farm fresh peas. My last week of peas sat in the fridge longer than they should have, so I figured making them into a nice soup would be good, since they were no longer as sweet.

On a tip from Tenli, Nathan's mom, I shelled my peas and then sauteed the pods in butter. Then I added some water and let that boil away to make a nice broth. I strained out the pods, and was going to discard them, but they were actually surprisingly tasty, so I decided to incorporate them into my soup after all. This turned out to be a good decision since it imparted further pea flavor and it helped keep the soup from being too watery.

Meanwhile, I had sliced up some onion and carrots, and got those cooking in a little more butter. Once I had my pea broth, I added that and some frozen chicken stock, and let that all cook together. Then came the peas. Once everything was nice and soft, I added the pods back in and went to town with the immersion blender.

This only made two or three cups of soup, (it was only a pint of peas), but once properly seasoned, it was delicious. Sweet but hearty, it was a simple and successful meal. Topped with sliced scallions and paired with bread and butter, it was SO GOOD. Pea soup is always the best, isn't it? Will have to make split pea soup in the winter.


a summery soup of peas and carrots

pasta with peas and broccoli rabe

pasta with peas and broccoli rabe

So, my first batch of peas, I pickled, and I liked them more than I expected. So, when week two of sugar snaps rolled around, I was feeling more generously towards the little legumes. (I just googled "are sugar snap peas legumes?" to be sure, and the results suggest they are. I apologize if I am mistaken; botany is not my strong suit.)

That Friday night I decided to make myself up a quick dinner before heading downtown to a party at my friend Becky's house, and I decided to make a dish that would honor the previously maligned pea, and my father's usual preparation of it. As I mentioned in my pickled pea post, my dad will often make a simple pasta dish with peas, onion and olive oil, and I usually try to get as few peas as possible. He also makes a similar dish with garlic and broccoli rabe. Since my second food co-op share included both of those veggies, I decided to combine the two ideas into one meal.

When I told Nathan of my plan, he got angry because "peas are the worst!" I tried to assure him that farm fresh peas were completely different from the frozen supermarket blandnesses he was used to, but he was adamant and kept saying "I can't believe you'd rather stay home and cook worsts instead of letting your boy take you out to dinner." I held my ground though, and was ultimately pretty happy with my decision. You'd be surprised how satisfying it is to get through even a small part of a weekly food co-op share.

I began by shelling the peas and setting the pasta water to boil. Then I sliced up an onion and cooked it in olive oil until it was very soft. After that, I added sliced garlic and the broccoli rabe, discarding the thickest stems. I cooked that over medium heat, stirring to keep the broccoli from burning. Then I added the peas and my secret ingredient: the olive oil and hot pepper flakes from an empty jar of anchovies. This fish infused oil gave it a little extra saltiness and richness, but the dish would obviously still work with regular oil and red pepper flakes. Once the pasta was al dente, I drained it and added it to the pan. I used campanelle, which is Italian for bell and is also a pretty cool pasta shape. I cooked it all together for a few minutes longer, and then ate it with plenty of grated parmesan. Delicious.

I realize now that I kind of screwed up with the peas. They were still delicious and fresh, and I should have cooked them up in the pods, rather than shelling them. They still tasted amazingly sweet and were crunchily delicious, but tossing the pods was definitely a waste. I've since made a similar dish with peas that stayed in the fridge for a few days longer, and by that point the pods had gotten nasty and wilty. While they were in their prime, however, they should be used. I won't make that mistake again.

pickled sugar snap peas

peter piper picked a peck of pickled PEAS

I don't like peas. My dad makes a pasta dish with onions and oil and frozen peas and the peas are always the worst part. Whenever he serves it, I always wonder why anyone bothers to eat the tasteless little buggers.

So, as you can probably imagine, I was less than thrilled when the season's first food co-op share included a little cardboard carton of sugar snap peas. The co-op is a big commitment in terms of the quantities of food you're getting, and I really want to waste as little of it as possible. However, that didn't mean I was looking forward to eating peas. At all.

While I was searching for a good sugar snap pea recipe, I came upon this one, which calls for pickling them. I'm not a particularly big fan of pickles, (in fact, there are a great number of pickles I don't like at all), but the idea appealed to me because it meant that I could prepare the peas and then pack them away for later. With so much produce and so few people eating it, there's only so much you can eat on any given day. I pickled these peas the day after my first pick-up, after eating a salad for breakfast, after preparing coleslaw, and before making spinach meatball risotto and a great big salad for dinner. I wanted to use those peas, but I wasn't about to eat them that Friday. Enter pickling them, which was supposed to take two weeks.


cold and refreshing pickled peas

This recipe was also great because making it was super fast. Once I had sliced a couple of cloves of garlic and cleaned the peas by snapping off the end and peeling off the string, the bulk of the work was done. I dissolved equal parts sugar and salt into white vinegar on the stove top, and then added as much cold water as I had vinegar.(I think I may have actually added too much vinegar and not enough water, but these were still good.) I put the peas and the garlic and some red pepper flakes in a jar, and then poured the cooled vinegar mixture over them. Into the fridge they went, and I didn't try them until a week later.

Crunchy and acidic, tempered by a bit of the peas natural sweetness, these make quite a good snack. Just don't bite them in half, lest you want ice cold vinegar running down your chest. Actually, in the summer heat, that might not be such a bad thing. Who knew peas could be so refreshing?!


gimme da peas

Since unenthusiastically pickling my first batch of peas, I've been cooking them with pasta and quite enjoying them. I regret being so biased against such a delightfully sweet and crunchy vegetable after encountering them only after a long sojourn in the supermarket's freezer department. It was unfair of me. I've got a couple more pea dishes that I'll be blogging about presently, but if we get more this week I think I'll try this. Pancetta and sage and garlic and ricotta? Sign me up! We'll see if I get it together with all those non-pantry-essential ingredients before snap pea season ends, but it does sound delicious.