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Ramp Pistachio Pesto

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Ramps. You either get them or you don’t. You’re either on board or off, keeping up with their hype or shrugging at the crazy obsession people have with these small wild leeks. This spring I might be leading the ramp brigade —actually I’m fully confident I’ve earned the title of Captain. My final journalism paper is a 6,000 word piece I’ve chosen to write on foraging, so naturally foraging has become my newest hobby. And now that it’s spring and coats are being hidden in the backs of our closets and uggs are being shoved in the basement where they belong, ramps have sprung.

The coinciding of my foraging paper and ramp season has culminated in an unhealthy infatuation with ramps. It’s concerning. All I talk about are ramps. All my friends talk about are ramps. All I want to eat are ramps. Every inch of my skin smells like ramps. My kitchen smells like ramps. My friend’s car smells like ramps. My pillows smell like ramps.

As part of research for my paper, I persuaded a local forager to take me out ramping. This was not easy —foragers are extremely secretive about their searching spots and I had to do everything but physically sew my lips shut/take a vow of silence before I convinced this guy to bring me along. It felt like treasure hunting. I had to restrain myself from prancing around the ramp patch I was so elated to have found them.

Two hours of foraging resulted in about 7 lbs of ramps between us. I took my share and now have the fattest most gorgeous bundle of ramps sitting in my fridge. First I made butter out of some of the tops. Then I pickled the bulbs. And then I had a genius idea and decided to make this pesto. The pistachios lend their color and their sweetness for a bold and pungent pesto that’s as abrasive as receiving a swift slap to the face. But its a good slap. One of those good stings. Put it on fish, on sandwiches or gnocchi. This is a genius game changer and I’m patting myself and my foraging fanatic freakiness on the back.

Ramp Pistachio Pesto

Ingredients

1 bunch of ramp tops (about 10-15 ramps worth), bulbs/white stem removed and saved for something else AKA PICKLE THEM
3/4 cup shelled pistachios
roughly 1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt & pepper to taste

Recipe

Put your ramp tops in the food processor and blend until finely chopped. Drizzle in 3/4 of the olive oil and all of the parmesan cheese and lemon. Pulse until smooth. Add the pistachios and pulse —don’t grind aggressively, you want the pistachios to stay chunky and not fully broken up. Stir in remaining olive oil and add more for a looser consistency. Salt and pepper to tase.

Put on: fish, pasta, bread/sandwich, ANYTHING, a spoon

The post Ramp Pistachio Pesto appeared first on StayHungree.


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