Picking up products from your own vegetable garden is definitely an exciting experience: first you prepare the ground, you seed carefully, you check weather forecasts worried about spring frosts, heavy rainfall or drought, you gently grow the new plants in the greenhouse and most importantly you meticulously observe the transformation of these young beings. Only then you have the pleasure to taste them.
A little worrying is hence normal after all the waiting and the efforts: will we have done our best? will we get the result we expect for?
You should probably understand my shock when a confused Samuel told me: “You didn’t seed peas, you seed mangetout! I’m still not sure about it, we will taste them for lunch.”. That “peas”, the only thing I manage to seed before lockdown blocked my peasant career. Four long rows of “peas” that I was already savoring unsuspecting their dual personality. What would we have done with this huge amount of mangetout? We have to pick them up. If they are mangetout, we risk to waste them.
When everything seems lost, Mimma brings back hope: “Why have you picked the “peas”? They are not ready yet, let them grow a little more.”. Samuel doesn’t agree, according to him pods are too thin, but Mimma doesn’t change her mind. We taste the mysterious crispy pods, there’s one thing we all agree on: even raw, they are really good!
A few days later we finally get the answer: they are peas! pods got thicker meaning that it’s time to pick them up. What a relief.
Now that the mystery is solved we can focus on the best part: we taste them in every kind of preparation, from the risotto to the ragù and why not also in salads. The more peas we eat, the more our fridge is full of pods begging us to eat them. We like to recycle also when cooking and we found the perfect recipe directly from Tuscany peasant tradition: a pods cream. We immediately get in the kitchen willing to have a warm meal after a summer storm. Our venture wouldn’t have been possible without our precious helper, the Juicer (its name is Angel not by chance!): we pass the boiled pods through the machine and we get the liquid part. We add boiled potatoes, a fry of onions, carrots and courgettes and then mix everything together.
We serve the dish for dinner to our guests who appreciate a lot. Concern is already gone and we get ready to savor this tempting green cream, green pea for the record!
Nicole
