Ramps are back in town!
And food blogs and your local hip restaurants are clamoring to get them on their menus. But what are ramps, really? Also called wild leeks, they taste somewhere between a sweet onion and garlic, and look kind of like scallions with broader, wider greens.
Sure, they’re delicious, but part of their appeal is their uber short harvesting season making them seem elusive and oh-so-on-trend for the month of April.
So I’m jumping on the bandwagon and contributing to the loud shouting on the internet: EAT RAMPS WHILE YOU CAN!
Ramps are wonderful in many different facets: grill them, caramelize them, bake them into quiches, sprinkle them on top of eggs, pickle them, or do as I do, and make them into pesto.
Once you’ve got pesto, you can choose to follow through on my recipe: spreading them onto some cod and baking them over potatoes. Or you could do a million other things, like making a ramp pesto grilled cheese. Or adding pesto to your pasta. Or eating pesto straight out of the bowl. All of these are legitimate options.
I found ramps to be the perfect compliment to this cod dish, spread on thick and then baked over a mix of different roasting potatoes from the farmer’s market.
And once you’re done baking, spritz with some lemon juice and just let the pesto drip off the fish and onto the potatoes.
- 4 ounces ramps, bulbs and greens separated, then chopped
- ½ tablespoon + ¼ cup olive oil
- Pinch of salt
- ¼ cup walnuts
- 1 garlic clove, smashed
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¼ cup Parmesan
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pounds mixed small roasting potatoes, quartered
- Kosher salt
- 1½ pounds Alaskan cod
- 1 lemon, cut into quarters
- Heat ½ tablespoon olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped ramp bulbs with a pinch of salt and cook until they start to soften. Add ramp greens and cook until slightly wilted, about 2 minutes.
- Transfer ramps to food processor. Add remaining ¼ cup olive oil, walnuts, garlic, lemon juice, and Parmesan. Pulse until smooth. Adjust lemon juice or Parmesan to taste.
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Toss potatoes in olive oil and Kosher salt. Roast for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and place cod pieces on top. Spread pesto on top of cod and return to oven for 20 minutes.
- Spritz with lemon juice before serving.
[…] asparagus is transformed into a pesto and tossed with pasta. Who said pesto had to be basil (not me)? The asparagus flavor isn’t too overpowering—it’s mellowed by the Parmesan […]
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