English Peas, Yes Please
English peas rank right up there with tomatoes and strawberries on my list of favorite things to grow. One of my very earliest memories is standing in my mom’s garden between two rows of peas that were taller than me. She taught me how to unzip the pod and pop the sweet peas right into my mouth—something I still love to do.
My current obsession is to toss English peas with pasta and garlic scape pesto. In this dish you don’t even have to cook the peas. You just shell them directly into a colander and pour the boiling pasta water over them. The heat from the water and the pasta cooks the peas just a bit. It is so crazy good. I’ve had it three times in the past week.
Now that it is finally hot, I am going to harvest the remainder of our peas and pull out their vines. I’m thinking about making fresh pea hummus crostini with pea tendril garnish, but I’m open to other ideas!
We had this with just English peas last night. Very tasty. I disregarded the cooking times and blanched them for about 30 seconds.
July 7th, 2010 at 5:42 pmhttp://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/seasonalcooking/spring/peas/recipes/food/views/Fresh-Green-Peas-and-Sugar-Snap-Peas-in-Sesame-Dressing-109708
mmmm…nothing like fresh peas. This weekend I made pea risotto. What a lovely process it is of churning and churning till the rice renders itself a creamy delight – a wonderful comfort food.
July 7th, 2010 at 9:10 pmMy peas are over 7 feet tall and outgrew both trellises! I’m about to pull them out. I wonder if it’s too late to start some kind of green bean, perhaps a haricot vert?
July 12th, 2010 at 6:25 pmI’ve been trying lots of new pea recipes, these two are standouts.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/incredible-smashed-peas-and-broad-beans
and Nigella Lawson’s pea risotto. Those Brits know their peas! I added the pea pods to the stock which really seemed to intensify the pea flavor.
Enjoy!