Domenica Marchetti is a food writer, recipe developer and cooking teacher who specializes in seasonal Italian home cooking and the author of The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy. Visit her website at www.domenicacooks.com. You can find more of her recipes here.

It strikes me as funny now, but for years when my kids were younger, while I spent my days testing recipes and writing about food, I still struggled to put dinner on the table just about every night.

Part of it, I guess, had to do with my husband’s work schedule. Daily newspaper deadlines meant he usually did not get home before 8:30 or 9 p.m., often later. If what I was making was not “kid-friendly” food, I would set it aside for my husband and me and search for something simpler to throw together for the kids. This helped us to get through “arsenic hour,” as a friend described dinnertime in a household with young children.

Once I tried to get them to eat more adventurously, more often than not, only one of them would like the offering, while the other turned up his or her nose or grimaced while trying to choke down a few bites.

It was peas that finally saved the day.

I came across a big mound of them, still in their pods, at my local farmers’ market one spring morning. I put the kids to work shelling the peas. My son immediately turned the event into a competition, shelling as fast as he could, while my daughter proceeded at her own idle pace.

The peas became a bowl of minestra di pasta e piselli for supper, flavored with spring onion, diced pancetta and freshly grated parmesan. The kids, I’m happy to say, loved it and still do, in fact. I made it the other night and not a single pea was left in the pot.

A word about fresh peas: Freshly harvested English peas are a sweet and delicate treat. But that sweetness does not last; the longer peas sit after being picked, the starchier they become. If you are buying peas from a farmers’ market or grocery store, check to see when they were harvested. Peas are at their best when used within a few hours of being picked.

Look for pods that are full but not bulging — overly mature peas are tough and starchy and not nearly as sweet as smaller ones. If you buy peas in the morning and don’t plan on cooking them until evening, leave them in their pods and store them in the refrigerator; this will help retain their sugar and flavor. One pound of peas in their pods yields about 1 cup of shelled peas. If you are unable to find freshly harvest English peas, substitute good-quality frozen peas.

Recipe: Minestra Di Pasta E Piselli (Cookthink)

Posted by domenica in recipes, the soup kitchen | | Subscribe to this feed