To anyone living in the New York area, it would be hard to escape the fact that Spring has arrived. Of course, the foliage knew something we didn’t, for even as snowflakes continued to fall, and an icy wind gripped the City deep into April, Nature was coming alive with the bounty of the Earth.
Chief among that bounty includes the arrival of early Spring vegetables, most notably sunchokes (also known as “Jerusalem Artichokes”) and ramps (also known as “Wild Leeks”). Jamie took a trip down to the Union Square Greenmarket, and came back with several bunches of ramps, and a nice bag of sunchokes. My quest was to find a delicious way to prepare them…
Hunting around quite a bit for the perfect ramps recipe yielded a number of results for pasta with ramps, in particular from Epicurious.com. However, what most caught my eye was a great page from the Seasonal Chef site, giving a bit of background, and offering no less than five options for ramps.
The winner turned out to be: “Ramp and Caramelized Shallot Pesto Pasta.”
The basic ingredients are: (for two people)
- 10-15 ramps
- 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 shallots
- 1/2 lb (225 grams) fresh fettuccine
- 1/4 cup grated Grana Padano
I took some liberties with the recipe:
- We were cooking for two; In Italy, you calculate anywhere from 60 – 110 grams of pasta a person, usually staying at the upper part of the range if pasta’s all you’re having
- Blanching the ramps is a big deal for this dish, preserving their beautiful intense green color
- The lemon peel adds a great deal of freshness and clarity to the dish
- Every pasta dish is better with fresh pasta
My take on the recipe:
- Soak the ramps in a great deal of cool water, changing the water repeatedly to loosen and remove the tremendous amount of earth that clings to the roots
- After changing the water at least three times, trim roots from ramps and slip off outer skin on bulbs, if loose. Blanch ramps in a 6-quart pot of boiling salted water, 5 to 10 seconds, lift out of boiling water and transfer to cutting board. Coarsely chop ramps and put in a blender with zest or lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.
- Meanwhile, chop shallots and saute in a mix of olive oil and good unsalted butter for about 5 minutes on a low flame, stirring occasionally, until shallots turn golden. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes before adding to the blender. Purée until smooth.
- Add pasta to boiling water and cook for two minutes, then ladle out 1/4 cup pasta water to add to blender when you process the pesto. Continue cooking pasta until al dente, about one more minute for fresh pasta.
- Drain cooked pasta in colander, saving some pasta water, and return pasta to pot. Add pesto and continue cooking for several minutes, stirring to coat evenly, and adding hot pasta water, if needed. Stir in parmesan cheese and transfer to serving dish.
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Tags: pasta · ramps · seasonal cooking · shallots1 Comment
Very Cool bro