PEAS WITH RICOTTA AND MINT | 21 JULY 2009
I wish I could say that I have a love affair with vegetables. I desperately want to love them, each and every one. But, alas, I don’t. I have been trying to enjoy the most revered of all vegetables, the aubergine or eggplant, for the past year with no luck. I hate it and that’s that. Peppers also make me uneasy so that mixed grill vegetable plate is kinda out for me. That said I have also been known to say that I hate peas; mostly because I find them annoying. They remind me of that little song/poem: “I eat my peas with honey/ I’ve done it all my life/ I eat my peas with honey/ It keeps them on the knife.” For me, that about sums up peas: evasive little fellows that are hard to eat. Then I moved to England and was introduced to mushy peas, which enlightened me to the fact that I did not have a problem with the taste of peas just the format.
Enter Rob. In preparation for a weekend in Cornwall of 20 people, he has ordered all the groceries and planned out the menus. (PS These are the types of people with whom I like to go on holiday. If you are one of them, please feel free to contact me) I have one task; the peas. Imagine my dismay. I have to make a dish that I don’t eat! Not so. This will be peas, ricotta and mint. A salad inspired by the likes of Bocca di Lupo (an apparently great London Italian, I embarrassingly have not been to yet.) The result was amazing and has changed my view on peas.
Ingredients:
Serves a lot
1 bag frozen peas (1.2 kilos)
1.5 tubs of ricotta (roughly 375 grams)
Mint
Lemon
Salt
Step 1: Boil the frozen peas for 3 minutes.
Step 2: Mix in ricotta so that the peas are bound together. Remember its peas with ricotta not the other way around.
Step 3: Squeeze in a lemon, salt to taste, add some shredded mint. Mix and serve.