Pasta w/ ramps, morels & peas

Ingredients

  • 2 bunches ramps
  • Fresh morels + butter to cook
  • 130g pancetta
  • 50g peas
  • 1/4 cup chicken stock
  • 130g bucatini

Method

  1. Bring pot of unsalted water to boil, the less water the better
  2. Cook pasta until about 2-3 minutes before being done.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the starchy water.  Add salt to pot and cook until pasta is almost done.  If using frozen peas, heat in the reserved water
  3. Cut the white parts of the ramps into 1/4" slices, and the red / green parts into 2" pieces
  4. Fry pancetta and remove from pan.  Dump out extra fat
  5. Add white parts of ramps to pan and cook until no longer strong
  6. Add red parts of ramps, and the morels to pan and cook until the morels have softened.  You may need to add some butter (the pancetta fat will be too heavy for the mushrooms).
  7. Add peas and pancetta to pan, chicken stock and reserved (unsalted) pasta water
  8. Add pasta to pan
  9. Let everything simmer over low heat until there is just a little liquid left, enough to coat the pasta plus a little bit more.  The pasta will continue to absorb for a few minutes in the plate, so leave it slightly more liquid than you want at the end

Notes

  • Ramps and morels are in season for just a couple weeks in the spring
  • We use frozen peas, but if you can find fresh peas they would work too
  • The more morels the better

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