Corona Cookbook: Ramps

For two weeks every spring I go to ‘my spot’ in the forest to harvest ramps. It’s called foraging for those who pursue ramps and accidentally find them. I go the the same location each year.

I harvest 85% ramp leaves and 15% bulbs and leaves, i.e., the complete plant. By leaving the roots in, I’m assured of seeing the ramp multiply the next spring.

If you don’t know what ramps are, they are in the onion family and are somewhere in-between leeks and garlic in flavor. You can see from my photo what they look like.

I use ramp leaves and wrap them around scallops for meals, as well as make pickled ramps or ramp pesto.

My favorite recipe is to make ramp pasta, a dish ‘according to my wife Maria is ‘ the best pasta dish ever.’

This is what I do:

Ramp Pasta

Cook a half pound spaghetti or linguini halfway. Save a cup of pasta water for use later.

Chop your ramp bulbs from your 3/4 pound of ramps and sauté them for five minutes in olive oil and salt and pepper. Add the chopped leaves to the pan and cook for another five minutes. Pour a quarter cup of white wine to deglaze the pan. Add the half cooked pasta to the sauté pan with a cup of heated chicken stock. Add a half cup of pasta water to the mix and season with red pepper flakes and salt and pepper. After it starts to reduce, add a quarter cup of heavy cream to the dish and watch it reduce for a couple of minutes. As it reduces, add a half cup of grated Parmesan cheese and let it cook for three minutes.

Now you can turn off the heat and put the pasta with its sauce in bowls to serve.

That’s it. Simple and tasty.