Sugar Snap Peas: Five Italian and Spanish Style Recipes You’ll Love

It is the season for sugar snap peas (Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon), and we have had a wonderful harvest of sugar snaps in our yard, and we expect more from Restoration Farm, our CSA.

Almost too ready for picking

So today I made a special sweet pea dish — Pasta with Chorizo and Peas – for my seven-year-old swee’pea who is in charge of peas at home, from planting to watering to harvesting (he gets assistance in stringing the poles as our peas need strings to climb on with their delicate tendrils. We buy sugar snap seeds from Botanical Interests).

Someone eats a lot of peas as he is harvesting. Someone’s mother doesn’t mind at all.

He collected peas between World Cup matches today and then we spent a companionable half hour shelling the peas and eating many of them as we watched Costa Rica play Greece in the World Cup and I put the water to boil. At halftime I made dinner to eat during the second half.

Quite a haul! We can freeze what we don’t use. But we’ll use it all before that happens.

So the following Pasta with Chorizo and Peas  is a new recipe and below that you’ll find links to some of our perennial favorites: Spanish tortillas and Italian pastas. This recipe uses only the peas, but the pods are edible. I sliced the pea pods into my salad, as he doesn’t like those and I find them wonderfully crunchy and sweet.

Rich flavor that doesn’t overwhelm the peas.

Pasta with Chorizo and Sweet Peas (serves two for a meal; four as a starter)

8 oz dry short pasta, such as penne, farfalle or medium shells

1-2 Tbs butter (reserve 2^nd optional Tbs for finishing)

1 Tbs minced onion

¼ Cup hot, dry Spanish chorizo, peeled and chopped small

¼ – ½ Cup fresh sweet peas (thawed frozen will work too)

Grated cheese to taste (Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano preferred, but cheddar will work too)

While the pasta is boiling (be generous with the salt in the water), melt 1 Tbs butter at medium high. When foaming subsides, lower heat and add minced onion, stirring occasionally until tender and translucent. Add chorizo and peas and cook just until chorizo begins to release color.

When the pasta is ready, reserve ½ cup of the cooking liquid before draining.

Return the pasta to the pot, reducing heat to low and add chorizo and pea mixture. Add the reserved optional butter and allow to melt. Stir in the cheese and add the reserved pasta water as needed to make saucy. Serve with additional grated cheese if desired.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara with Peas (piselli)

mmmmmm

Pasta e piselli (Pasta with sweet peas and ham)

Easy-peasy ham and peas….served over pasta

Tortilla Torcal (potato, chorizo, ham, peas)

Tortilla Torcal

Tortilla Primaveral (Spanish Stovetop Frittata for Spring with leeks, potatoes and peas)

Tortilla with spring vegetables

P.S. I also slice pea pods into this Cold Rice Noodle and Tahini Salad that includes radishes from our garden

Tags: chorizo, gardening, seasonal recipes, sugar snap peas, summer recipes