Featured Ingredient: Sugar Snap Peas

I remember standing with my grandpa in his huge garden while he told me about “Lazy Man Peas.” They were peas that you didn’t have to break out of their pods to enjoy. You could just munch away at them pod and all. Really, these peas are mostly tender, fleshy pod, with just tiny little peas inside. The pods are fatter than snow peas, which are usually very flat, and they are delicious. The varieties we are accustomed to getting our hands on today first were introduced to the general American gardening public in the 1970’s, and Grandpa was on the cutting edge, although peas with such substantial pods have been around for 300 years or more.

I’m not sure when I saw a Lazy Man pea pod again, although by then they were using their more popular name: Sugar Snap Peas. In the many years between my childhood experience and my current farmer’s market obsession, they came to be very popular and easily available in supermarkets, fresh or frozen. And I came to anticipate the local snap pea season like a kid does Christmas.

Sugar snap peas are a rather versatile vegetable, and are good cooked as well as raw. I like to pull their slightly unchewable ends and strings off (you can kind of snap the stem end down and unzip the strings from the spine and belly of the pod) and eat them like candy. They’re nice chopped up in a green salad or are good as part of a veggie tray with Garlic and Herb Vegetable Dip or Green Pea Hummus.

They’re great raw in just about all other kinds of salads, too. They keep their crunch and play well with other vegetables in salads like Sugar Snap Pea and Radish Salad with Feta and Dill

 

Or Chopped Vegetable Salad.

Thinly sliced, they’re a nice addition to slaw like Napa Cabbage Slaw with Asian Flavors.

They’re also great with green peas, split peas, and walnuts in this Three Pea Salad with Walnuts and Parmesan.

 

The naturally crunchy nature of sugar snap peas allows them to hold up well to grains in salads, too, like in this Wheat Berry Salad with Sugar Snap Peas and Lemon Vinaigrette or Black Rice Salad with Snap Peas and Avocado.

Of course, you can cook snap peas as well. I particularly like them sautéed or stir fried until just tender-crisp, as in simple pasta dishes like Pasta with Snap Peas, Sage, and Breadcrumbs, 

or Pasta with Asparagus, Snap Peas, and Lemon.

 

And you can add them to an early summer stir fry, like this one.

 

 And if you have enough snap peas to enjoy them fresh while waiting for Pickled Sugar Snap Peas to be properly infused with vinegar, ginger, garlic, and chiles, so much the better. They’re well worth waiting for.

I love delving through my recipe collection to find new ways to use my farmer’s market snap pea gatherings, but if I can’t decide on the best way to use them, I’m perfectly happy to eat them all out of hand. On their own, they’re one of my favorite garden vegetable treats (at least until cucumbers and tomatoes arrive). And if my feelings for them qualify as an obsession, it may be the most healthy obsession in the world. 

Consider inviting sugar snap peas into your life this summer. Or don’t. I’ll be happy to eat them all.

Other posts like this one: 21Seasonal Favorites, Featured Ingredient: Asparagus, Featured Ingredient: Zucchini

Coming soon: Greens and Cheese Panini

 

Pasta with Snap Peas and Sage

This recipe is early summer simplicity in a pan. I found it in Local Flavors by Deborah Madison (I plunder the library copy a couple times a year), and really wanted to taste the combination of peas and sage. I also became a believer in toasty, buttery breadcrumbs sprinkled on pasta dishes back in the winter. For some reason I didn’t post that recipe, probably because of poor photos, but this one is going in the books, and going on my table whenever possible.

The original recipe called for shell peas. I almost never use fresh shell peas in a big, cooked recipe because they’re a little too hard to come by and too much work. I prefer to just eat them if I can get them (or grow them and save them from the rabbits), or use them raw in a recipe like this pea and fresh mint salad. I was going to use frozen peas when I remembered that I had plenty of sugar snap peas from the farmer’s market in the refrigerator. Hooray!

I buy sugar snap peas every time I see them at the farmer’s market, beginning in mid-spring. If I don’t have a recipe like this salad, or this salad, or this salad, or this salad in mind, I’ll just eat them like M&M’s (they don’t melt in your hand!). Their sweetness and slight crunch turned out to be wonderful in this simple pasta dish.

Of course, the sage and garlic were delicious, too. I always buy a sage plant for my patio herb garden. It always does well, and I love it in these beans and this bread. Now I have another great use for those dusty-green leaves. And speaking of multi-use ingredients: breadcrumbs. Yum! I made fresh ones by blitzing some of this homemade bread in the food processor. I tossed those crumbs with melted butter and let them toast, then sprinkled them on each serving of pasta and peas.

Buttery, sweet, a little crisp, herby, garlicky, and comfortingly delicious. This recipe is definitely a keeper for the quick summer pasta files. And like all those other simple pasta dishes, it can be varied based on what’s available. But don’t forget about peas and sage!

Pasta with Snap Peas, Sage, and Breadcrumbs

Adapted from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison

You could replace the wine with additional pasta cooking water if you do not have some on hand.

2 tablespoon butter

½ cup fresh breadcrumbs

8 ounces small pasta shells (or other small, curly pasta)

2 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup diced onion

2 minced garlic cloves

½ pound sugar snap peas, strings removed, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons chopped fresh sage

½ teaspoon coarse salt, or to taste

½ cup dry white wine

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the breadcrumbs and toss them to coat in the butter. Continue to cook and stir until the breadcrumbs are lightly toasted, about 5-8 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

2. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water. Drain, reserving about a cup of cooking water.

3. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook until soft but not yet brown, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook and stir about 1 minute more.

4. Add the sugar snap peas, sage and salt. Add about ½ cup pasta water and the wine. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by about half and the peas are tender-crisp, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest.

5. Add the pasta and toss the mixture together to mix well. Cook until heated through. Add more pasta water if the mixture seems too dry. Stir in the parsley. Taste for seasoning, especially salt, and adjust as needed. Sprinkle the toasted breadcrumbs over each serving.

Makes about 4 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Pasta with Asparagus, Snap Peas, and Lemon; Pasta with Zucchini, Corn and Fresh Mint

One year ago: Berry and Rhubarb Galette

Sugar Snap Pea and Radish Salad

The English peas, that is the peas one eats after removing them from the pod, that I planted in my backyard garden are getting close to the edible stage. I didn’t have to be all that patient if I wanted some kind of pea, however, because the sugar snap peas, those one eats pod and all, have been fabulous in the farmer’s market. I recently combined them in a salad with another great spring offering: radishes.

This recipe was written for green beans, basil and Parmesan, but the author, Jerry Traunfeld, was kind enough to suggest some variations in herbs and cheese, one of which was feta and dill. I like to start with something like this that looks fabulous (and is usually pretty simple), then swap in what I have, often using various green vegetables interchangeably. For example, asparagus, green beans, snap peas, and even broccoli perform fairly similarly, especially in stir fries, pastas, salads and soups. They don’t taste all that much alike, so sometimes the other flavors in the dish might need an adjustment. The dill was great with the snap peas and radishes, but I have to admit that I used it because 1) I love it, and 2) I didn’t have any basil, but there was some lovely dill available, again, at the farmer’s market.

I can’t seem to grow my own dill from seed, which is totally hilarious to the folks from whom I bought a big, cheap bundle. The stuff pretty much grows willy-nilly from self-sown seeds in just about any garden where it has ever been planted at any time in history. I do not seem to have the magic it takes to make that happen. So I bought some and stirred it into my lovely snap pea and radish salad along with its bosom companion, feta cheese.

I loved this salad and can’t wait to make it again. The snap peas I had were delicately crisp and didn’t need any cooking, but if you have some whose jackets have become a little tough and stringy, a 2 to 3 minute blanching should make them more palatable. The radishes are cut into wedges rather than sliced in this recipe, which I think is a brilliant idea. For one thing, it’s a little easier to cut them that way. For another, you get more radish taste in a forkful of salad and the chunky shape is more compatible with the pea pods. There’s just a light dressing of lemon vinaigrette on the vegetables, so it’s the crisp sweetness of the peas, zesty radishes, briny feta, and lots of dill that make up the big flavor combinations.

Don’t let this recipe as it is written be a restriction. I don’t plan to. Like so many other Messy Apron recipes, it’s more of a guideline and platform for improvisation. Whatever’s green (or yellow in the case of yellow wax beans) and in season could probably work here along with a compatible herb and cheese. I might even try something like this with the peas that are ripening on the vines in the garden. Perhaps mint would be the operative herb. At least I know how to grow that!

Sugar Snap Pea and Radish Salad with Feta and Dill

Based on a recipe in The Herbal Kitchen: Cooking with Fragrance and Flavor by Jerry Traunfeld

If your snap pea pods are tough or stringy, you can blanch them, then shock them in ice water before using them in this salad.

2 tablespoons minced onion

1 tablespoon lemon juice
8 ounces sugar snap peas, ends and strings removed, cut in half or thirds
4 ounces radishes, cut into wedges
¼ cup finely chopped fresh dill leaves
½ teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
¼ cup crumbled feta cheese 

1. In a small bowl, combine the onion and the lemon juice. Let stand while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

2. Combine the snap peas and radishes in a medium bowl. Stir in the dill.

3. Add the salt, olive oil, and black pepper to the lemon juice mixture. Whisk well to combine. Pour over the snap pea mixture and toss to coat. Gently stir in the feta cheese.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Three Pea Salad with Walnutsand Parmesan, Wheat Berry Salad with Sugar Snap Peas and Lemon Vinaigrette, Feta and Lemon Vinaigrette (I think this would be good with some fresh dill in place of the dried oregano.)

One year ago: Sesame Soy Asparagus with Garlic and Ginger