On ramps and recipes

A good friend was over last night and brought us a bag full of ramps.

(Wild leeks that are a mountain delicacy for a few weeks each year, if you are not familiar with them.)

When we first moved to the mountains, many people told us about ramps, asked us if we liked them, and we somehow made it five springs without trying any. So last night when we were given a bag, I decided to be brave and try them. I read a few google articles, thought about what I had to go with them in my kitchen, and settled on tweaking a recipe from Ree Drummond.

Here is her recipe for Pancetta with leeks. I had read it a while back and decided to make it and liked it okay. I am not a big onion/leek fan, but I am a fan of using what I have on hand and trying new things. My ramp version was different in that I had bacon instead of pancetta, ramps instead of leeks, and macaroni noodles instead of farfalle. I also used the 4C parmesan, instead of the yummy shaved kind, but again, I was really winging it with the gift of ramps at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

You aren’t getting a lovely picture of the ramps, or the dish. I just wanted to pass along that it was good. I had six non ramp eating kids here and they went back for seconds….that tells me that it was better than awful (or they were starving).  I also wanted to end my blog drought, and thought that blogging about food would be a good way to get back into something I love!

What new foods have you tried lately?

Kym