Challenge: use so-fresh-so-sweet and so ready peas from #soelfarm.
Solution: Italian dinner.
Sagnarelli pasta with pea, guanciale and cream sauce
Acknowledgment: Sauce recipe is from wonderful book of Sally Griffiths “Great pasta sauces”. The only modification - I used guanciale instead of pancetta. It was thinly sliced and became lovely crispy, complimenting the crunchy pea pods. And, of course, very fresh very young and very sweet pea pods are used (a lot of them) instead of frozen peas.
Heat the heavy-based pan and add thinly sliced guanciale. Fry about 3 minutes, turning them often, so they do not burn, but release the fat and become nicely crispy on the edges. Add a spoon of fried onion (I always have a jar of fried onion in the fridge. Cooking became so much easier when you do not need to chop the onion that the recipe calls for) and fresh thinly sliced clove of garlic. In about a minute add sweet pea pods, washed, ends and side strings removed, cut in 2 -3 pieces. Keep turning the nicely twisting in fat (I did not promise a healthy dinner, did I?) content until peas are bright green and still very crunchy. Add salt, pepper and 1 cut of heavy cream. Lower the heat, stir occasionally. In 5-7 minutes the sauce is ready, at which point add a fresh chopped basil. Sauce should not be very thick. Toss with hot pasta - I used sagnarelli and the flat ribbons worked well, were fully covered with sauce. Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Serve with fresh salad, tossed with good EVOO and a bit of balsamic vinegar. Sun-dried tomatoes with plenty of nicely chopped fresh herbs (thyme, basil, oregano) and EVOO work well too.
After reading “Real food, Fake food” by Larry Olmsted I have to list the ingredients used:
Sagnarelli pasta by Cav. Giuseppe Cocco. EVOO by Planeta, Sicily. Balsamic vinegar for salad by Villa Grimelli, barrel aged. All Italian products courtesy of A&S Salumeria in Millstone. Fresh herbs, garlic, salad, edible flowers for salad, sweet peas - all from our own SOEL Farm