Italian pea-fection: 30 min Ditalini with Fresh Springy Peas
a naturally vegan creamy veggie condiment
Ciao friends! Before I get to the recipe with succulent sweet peas, can I take a brief detour to talk about this week’s parent project? All my spare time is currently occupied with making a pinata as big as a planetoid. My son is turning 13 years old this week!
It’s a tradition that I make 2 very non-Italian things for his celebration: a pinata and a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. Because he’s hitting the teens this year and the boys are all bigger, I set my goal for a bigger pinata - with 7 layers of newspaper-mache in the form of Brawl Stars Kabocha Fang’s head.
It’s just stopped raining here in Como so there is hope that this pinata will dry in time to allow itself to be painted. I’ll show you the result in next week’s foodletter!
Back to business! If you saw my market post, you know that fresh peas in the pod are in full season here in Como! Yippee! There’s nothing like sliding your finger into the tight crease of a bright green pod to release these little round, sweet treats.
This week’s recipe also includes a special technique you can leverage for other recipes to make simple veggie pasta sauces extra saucy. I call it melting the onions. As you know, the goal is to coat your pasta with flavor, so it clings to all the little grooves you can barely see on the pasta surface. Take a little extra time at the beginning of your sauce making to slowly heat your onions until they melt into the oil and caramelize a bit. Your taste buds with say grazie! I also do this with anchovies in other recipes to come.
A quick word about pasta shape: when there are cut or un-cut vegetables in a pasta, we often try to match the size of the pasta to the size of the veggie. Why? For easier pick up on the fork and visual harmony. Since we are cooking whole peas, we choose the classic pea pasta partner: ditalini, a short fat cylinder pasta about the size of a pea. The name derives from the Italian word for thimble. It has come to mean something else in Italian slang but I am not going to touch that with a 10 foot pole! These come in rigati (with ridges) and lisci (smooth) forms. These pasta are often used for soups as well so are quite commonplace in grocery stores around the world and hopefully where you are.
pst! Scroll to the very bottom to download recipe pdf!
Ditalini with Fresh Springy Peas
Pasta e piselli
FOR 4 PEOPLE
1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped (approx. 100g)
4 Tbsp/50 g extra virgin olive oil + more to finish
cooking water, used multiple times
600 grams shelled fresh peas (prior to shelling, approx. 1 kg)
salt
freshly ground pepper
parmigiano reggiano, to taste (or leave it off to make it vegan!)
1)    Fill a big tall pot with water and salt. Set stove burner to high heat. Taste the water to make sure it’s salty like soup or the sea. Add more salt if needed as you’ll be using this salty water to flavor both the pasta and your sauce.
2)    Heat extra virgin olive oil in a sauté pan on low heat. Add onion. Add a 1/3 cup / 70ml cooking water to the pan. Cover and occasionally stir for 15 minutes until onions are soft and disintegrating.
4)Â Â Â Â When the water boils, add the pasta and cook to the package time (al dente), stirring occasionally.
5)Â Â Â Â Meanwhile, pour peas into onion mixture with 2/3 cup /140ml pasta cooking water and turn up the heat to medium/medium-low. After 5 minutes, taste peas for salt and add more if necessary. Let cook for 10 minutes total.
7) When the pasta is cooked al dente according to the time on the package, strain and immediately add to the pea pan and stir to combine.
Buon appetito!
Serving tips:
Serve with freshly ground pepper and parmigiano to taste at the table
Notes:
Salt: It’s important not to skimp. This salt is flavoring both your pasta and also your sauce in the form of pasta water.
Peas: you can also use frozen peas; just use less pasta cooking water and maybe a bit more salt to compensate.
Buon appetito! Have the best week and don’t forget to let me know if you make the pasta!
x Lolly
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Thank you so much for providing pdf files of your recipe. I like to print out recipes and many people don't offer a downloadable version of their recipe.
Definitely going to try this - kids will love it!