Ask the A2K cooks!

Spaghetti with Ramps

1/2 lb ramps
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest or lemon juice
Red chili flakes (optional)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb spaghetti
4 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
Toasted bread crumbs

1. Trim roots from ramps and slip off outer skin on bulbs, if loose. Blanch ramps in a 6-quart pot of boiling salted water, 5 to 10 seconds, lift out of boiling water and transfer to cutting board. Coarsely chop ramps and put in a blender with zest and oil.

2. Add spaghetti to boiling water and cook a few minutes, then ladle out 1/2 cup pasta water and add to blender. Purée ramps until smooth and season with salt. Continue to cook spaghetti until al dente, then ladle out about 1 cup additional pasta water before draining spaghetti in a colander. Return pasta to pot with ramp purée and toss with parmesan over moderate heat for several minutes, thinning sauce with a little pasta water as needed to coat pasta.

3. Transfer to serving plate a top with bread crumbs.

Here are all the awesome things about this soup:

1. Next to no effort: a little bit of chopping, and then a little blending. In between, you can do other things. This was great for working from home: I got the satisfaction of a homemade soup, with very little interruption of my work.
2. Fast: if you dice the potatoes small enough, and boil the water in a kettle while you chop, this can be ready in as little as 20 minutes.
3. Fat-free: Not only did skipping sauteing the veggies save time, but there was no need to add oil.
4. It involves ramps!
5. It tastes great!

SORREL: What can you do with it, besides using it in salads.

SORREL OMELETTES
also from Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book

Sorrel is one of the best flavourings for an omelette. Its sharpness goes beautifully with eggs. There are two ways of tackling the recipe:

1) The usual French style. Cook two good handfuls of sorrel in a tablespoon of butter, until they flop to a puree. Season. Make omelettes and put a tablespoon of the puree into the middle of each one before flipping it over and on to the plate. Avoid putting too much sorrel in; think of it as a flavouring rather than a filling.

2) Boulestin gave this recipe from the south of France. 'No omelette done with cooked sorrel can compare with it.'

First prepare the sorrel. Pick two or three handfulls, choosing young leaves. Wash them and cut away the thick stalks and ribs. Dry the leaves, then put them one on top of the other and roll them up. With scissors snip half-way down the roll, then across in thin slices. Snip down the rest of the roll and slice again. You should end up with small pieces that are not too juicy. I find scissors better for this than a knife or parsley mill. Beat 8 to 12 eggs in a bowl with salt and pepper. Add the sorrel, with a finely chopped clove of garlic and a little chopped chervil. Make one large omelette or several small ones; keep the mixture on the thick side so that the surface sorrel barely cooks. This gives the omelette a 'peculiar acid taste, extremely pleasant and fresh.'

Parsley mill???