RECIPE: Pasta with Shelling PEAS Prepared Three ways

PEAS!  I spent a lot more time this year LEARNING the different ways to cook them, which I will share with you here.  Combined, they made the most AMAZING pea-forward pasta dish, but each element can be used separately.  Apologies in advance for the detailed descriptions, but I thought it was important to share WHY every step was important.

This recipe will not work with frozen peas, because they have no pods; and it won't work with supermarket peas because the time between harvest and blanching is too long.  Peas are sweetest in the morning and in the evening, but they start losing that sweetness as soon as they're harvested, so if you like sweet peas, you must blanch them as soon as possible after an early morning or evening harvest.  If you can't shell and blanch them shortly after picking, put them in a cooler and keep them cold.

This recipe takes two days to prepare, and requires two pea harvests, but the days don't need to be successive - they can be up to a week apart, which is how I do it.  If you're super ambitious, you could combine both days into one, but I will leave that to you to figure out.

The pea pods are used to make two different broths - one is concentrated and added to the cream sauce, the other is used to cook the pasta.  The resulting dish is complex in ways that are undetectable, and indescribable. It has incredible umami with very few ingredients.  The cream sauce is light, not cloying.

I was hoping to get a better photo, as the one below doesn't show how many peas there are in this dish...I will post another one when I can.

PLEASE READ THROUGH THE ENTIRE RECIPE BEFORE YOU HARVEST YOUR PEAS!!

Pasta with PEAS Prepared Three ways

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 pounds of shelling peas*, harvested as early or as late in the day as possible (this is IMPORTANT) 
• water
• 2 T. minced shallots, preferably French grey shallots
• 2 t. butter
• 1 cup heavy cream 
• 1 T. himalayan pink salt, divided
• 1/2 pound capellini/angel hair pasta 
• Garnish:
• freshly ground pepper - white, green or black
• pea shoots and/or blossoms
• mint chiffonade
  

*5 POUNDS OF SHELLING PEAS YIELDED 3 POUNDS OF SHELLED PEAS.

INSTRUCTIONS:

FIRST DAY:

Make the concentrated pea pod essence:

On the first day, pick one pound of shelling peas early in the morning and rush home.  (If you can't rush home, put them in a cooler and keep them cold!)  Shell them immediately, reserving the pods, and blanch the peas immediately for 2 minutes.  Drain the peas, reserving the blanching water, and immerse the peas in ice water to stop them cooking.  This will preserve the bright green color. You should have about 1 cup of peas.  The peas will keep, refrigerated in a glass container, for at least 2 weeks.  The reserved blanching water will be used to make broth from the pods.

Rinse the pods well, remove the flower ends, and chop them into 1/4" pieces (I pulsed small amounts  4-5 times in my food processor.  Place the chopped pods into a pot large enough to hold them and add the reserved blanching water.  If the pods aren't covered, add enough water to cover them.  Bring to a simmer over high heat, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer for 6 minutes, tasting every 30 seconds, until the broth is flavorful and fresh tasting.  You don't want to go past 'fresh' into the 'cooked' flavor.

Remove the pods from the broth (discard them), and reduce the broth to approximately one cup over medium heat, tasting every few minutes to insure you like the flavor.  Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate until the subsequent day. 

SECOND DAY:

Make the fresh pea pod broth: 

On a subsequent day, pick 3 pounds of shelling peas early in the morning and rush them home.  Shell them immediately, reserving the pods, and blanch the peas immediately for 2 minutes.  Drain the peas, reserving the blanching water, and immerse the peas in ice water to stop them cooking.  This will preserve the bright green color. You should have about 3 cup of peas.  Refrigerate until you prepare the pasta.  The reserved blanching water will be used to make broth from the pods.

Chopping the pods in a food processor

Rinse the pods well, remove the flower ends, and chop them into 1/4" pieces (I pulsed small amounts  4-5 times in my food processor.  Place the chopped pods into a pot large enough to hold them and add the reserved blanching water.  If the pods aren't covered, add JUST enough water to cover them.  Bring to a simmer over high heat, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer for 6 minutes, tasting every 30 seconds, until the broth is flavorful and fresh tasting.  You don't want to go past 'fresh' into the 'cooked' flavor.

Remove the pods from the broth and discard them.  Leave the broth (which should be bright green) in the pot, but remove the pot from the heat.  (I poured the broth, including the pods, through a strainer into a bowl, then passed the strained broth through another strainer back into the pot.  I did this to insure there were no stray pod pieces in the broth.)

Pea pod broth after 6 minutes extraction - still green

Make the shallot cream sauce:

In a small pan on medium heat, sweat the minced shallots in the butter until they're translucent.  Do not allow them to brown.  Stir in the cream and heat it gently.  One tablespoon at a time, add 4 T. of the pea pod essence from the first day, tasting after each tablespoon, until it tastes pea-like but not overwhelmingly so.  Depending on the strength of your essence, you may need more or less than 4 T. Add a pinch of salt.  Remove from the heat and set aside until you make the pasta.

Make the finished pasta dish:

I use angle hair pasta because it cooks so quickly that the flavor of the pea pod broth won't be compromised.  You can use a different shape, knowing that it will affect the flavor.  

Bring the reserved pea pod broth to a boil.  

When the pea pod broth has just started to boil, add the pasta to the broth along with 2 t. of salt.  When the broth returns to boil, reduce heat and maintain a simmer, stirring the pasta to prevent sticking.  After 3 minutes, taste every 30 seconds until the pasta is al dente - almost cooked - drain the pasta reserving the broth.  The broth will now have a yellowish cast to it.

Pea pod broth after 6 minutes (on left), and after 9 minutes (on right) it's no longer green

Return the pasta to the pan, reduce heat to medium, and add the reserved shallot-cream sauce.  Stir constantly for 1 minute to heat the sauce and finish cooking the pasta.  Add all 4 cups of peas, and stir for 1-2 minutes to heat them and coat them in the sauce.  If there isn't enough sauce, add some of the reserved broth 1 T at a time.  Sprinkle with the remaining salt.  

When the peas are hot, serve the pasta, offering freshly ground pepper on the side.  My husband prefers the white pepper, I prefer the green.  I also garnished mine with mint chiffonade and a few pea shoots and blossoms.

Pasta with peas in pea cream garnished with green peppercorns, pea blossoms and mint chiffonade

Leftovers:

Transfer the remaining cooking water (which will now be more of a yellow-green) to a glass jar and save for another use, but note that it's lightly salted.  If you won't use it within a week, freeze it and use it the next time you cook peas. You could also use it to make soup, or pasta primavera.

The remaining pea pod essence can also be saved for later.  You can use it to make this recipe with frozen peas, once fresh peas/pods are no longer available.

Any leftover pasta reheats nicely in a 350F toaster oven for 10 minutes. 

NOTE: The first time I made this, although we both had second helpings, we were hungry later that night!  I suspect it's because it's pea heavy and pasta light.  We now serve it as a side with some protein - once with chicken milanese, and once with hot dogs!   It would also be good with some leftover chicken stirred in.

DISCLAIMER: The first time I made this, I used one pound of shelling peas, and 3 pounds of snap peas, harvested about 1 week apart.  I didn't intend to harvest snap peas, but didn't realize what I had done until I had half of them (laboriously) shelled, so I proceeded with them anyway.  This might have made the dish a little sweeter, but I will never do this again - shelling snap peas is TORTURE!