Sugar snaps do not last long in my kitchen. In fact, the one week of the season we get them from Stoneledge, many of them don’t even survive the trip from the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House up 1st Avenue to my apartment. I need sustenance for that 7-block walk, after all–these veggies can get heavy…
But this time, somehow they lasted through the trip home, and even until the next night. (I had no idea what the best practices are for storing sugar snaps, because it’s never been an issue before.) And then it was dinnertime.
My inspiration here was a review in the New Yorker of a pizza place out in Bushwick. It is too hot to turn my oven up to pizza temperatures, but there was a mention of a side dish of slightly charred sugar snaps with pickled ramps and fermented garlic. Reading it on the subway that morning, I said to myself, “Hey, I have sugar snaps and pickled ramps in my fridge.” No fermented garlic, but scapes in abundance, which isn’t really the same thing except that it is something garlicky that is not, in fact, garlic.
I chopped up the scapes roughly and sauteed them in a little olive oil.
Chopped the peas roughly, too (very roughly), and added them for just long enough to turn that bright green of peas that are barely the other side of raw.
Then I thought some thyme would be good, and lucky for me, it is a very hardy plant that survived my 10-day absence while I was in Europe. (The mint was not so lucky; the basil is still recovering.)
Finally, toss the whole mess with the last of my pickled ramps (recipe courtesy of Amanda Hesser at food52) Ramps usually come earlier in the season than sugar snaps, so it was especially lucky that I hadn’t finished this batch weeks and weeks ago. The leaves had gone into a frittata with asparagus, but the bottoms were destined to be soaked in brine. That recipe calls for ginger, fennel seed, thyme, and dried chile pepper, and it is delicious, and goes wonderfully with peas.
Toss together, check the seasoning, and dig in. My peas weren’t exactly charred, but I wasn’t inclined to cook them for long enough to get that result. There were no complaints about the finished product.
Sugar Snaps with Pickled Ramps
serves 3, maybe 4 if you excel at moderation
1 lb sugar snaps, trimmed
3 garlic scapes
8-10 pickled ramps
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
olive oil
salt & pepper as needed
Chop the peas and garlic scapes coarsely. No need to make perfectly even pieces, but all roughly bite sized. Pull the thyme from the stems.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil, and the scapes, and a little salt. Cook for a few minutes, until they start to soften a little, and then add the peas and the thyme. Cook briefly, just until the peas turn bright green and are no longer obviously raw.
Remove from the heat. Pull the ramps out of the brine & chop them up in the same manner. Toss everything together, check the seasoning, and serve as is, or let it cool to room temperature.
The CSA Files 