Pasta with peas is a classic spring dish. Since spring is
just around the corner, now is a great time to start to switch your cooking
style from the hearty winter meals to a lighter fresh spring feel. One of the
best transitional recipes is pasta with peas. It is a timeless tasty meal but
what makes it so incredible? When looking the recipe it seems very simple.
- ½ pound of your favorite pasta
- 1 cup of fresh peas
- 3 Table spoons of butter
- 1 clove of garlic or 2 cloves depending on how garlicly you like it
- Juice of half a lemon
- ¼ of a cup of pasta water
- Parmesan for garnish
- Salt and pepper to taste
Serves 4, cooking time 30 minutes.
The first step is to put a pot of water up to boil and add
some salt to the water. Once the water is boiling you add in the pasta, and
depending on the type of pasta either fresh or dried it could take anywhere
from 3 minutes to 20 minutes to cook the pasta to an al dente texture. While
the pasta is cooking you can start the sauce. For the sauce you melt the 3
tablespoons of butter and then add the clove of diced garlic or more depending
on personal taste. After a minute or two then you add the peas and cook them
for about 3 minutes, then you add in the ¼ of a cup of pasta water stir, and
finally toss the pasta in the sauce and then plate. Once plated garnish with
grated parmesan and salt and pepper.
At first glance this recipe may seem a bit simple, there
isn’t any extreme prep, no days of waiting, no super expensive equipment, and
that’s because it’s one of those recipes that is incredible from fresh
ingredients and love not an arduous process. It is also done in around 30
minutes. It is this simplicity that makes the dish incredible. The chef tip to
anyone cooking it, is that the ingredient quality is everything. Since there
are so few steps and ingredients it really relies on ingredient quality and freshness
to make it exquisite.
One of the easiest ways to get great quality ingredients
is to simply grow them yourself! Peas are super easy to grow and don’t take up
a lot of space. All you really need is a window box, some seeds, and something
for the peas to grown on. Also growing peas is pretty inexpensive and fun.
However if you don’t have much success gardening like myself then you could go
to the farmers market and buy them there. I like to use the Parmesan Reggiano
from Italy it has the best flavor and I always have a chunk in my refrigerator.
The pasta I used was a really fun curly spaghetti aka canule, you could use
what ever your favorite pasta is or you could even make fresh pasta. Mini
farfalle would be a super cute pasta to use. You could also add your favorite
herbs either in the sauce or as a garnish. Almost any herb would work
especially a mint, curly parsley, thyme, or basil. The type of salt you use is
very important, kosher salt is generally a standard in every professional
kitchen because of its perfect sized flake and its even salinity, it is one of
the salts I prefer to use. The other salt that is a good option is a finishing
salt for a garnish situation, the standard finishing salt is fleur de sel, a
wetter French salt with a very pretty look and feel.
So spring into a new style of cooking and give this recipe a
try. The light simple timeless recipes are perfect for spring especially when
you can use super fresh ingredients, most of which you can grow yourself!