Peas, Pleeeeease!

Today was the last swim meet of the season at our local pool. Because it was a seemingly endless meet and because I was one of those parents whose job it is to stand next to the launching area (known as the block) and time the kids (aged 5 - 18) while they swim and because I was very bored, I started questioning (harassing) the swimmers in the queue. It started with small questions like ‘what’s your middle name?’ and from there I’d try to silently figure out how their parents had chosen those middle names. (Father’s ex-girlfriend, Mother’s aunt who would die and hopefully leave her money, you get the idea) Eventually the middle name thing lost its excitement. I decided I could use this time and these (un)willing participants to conduct a very scientific survey instead. ‘What’s your favorite food?’ Huh? ‘What’s your favorite food?’ Slowly the eyes would rise to meet mine. Wide blue/brown/green eyes looking at me trying to figure out what I was talking about (this is not typical conversation behind the block). ‘What’s your favorite food?!’ Um, cheese pizza. I was fairly nice for the first round but after I had heard cheese pizza and pasta with butter - no cheese (tragic, I know) enough times, I started tuning them all out and completely losing interest in my new project. Just when I thought I’d have to change my strategy again, along came Jacob. Jacob is about 10 but I’ve known him since he was about 5. Apparently I’ve never had a food discussion with him before. ‘What’s your favorite food?’ Lamb chops. Before I could pick my chin up off the deck, he was on the block and gone. The next time the poor kid was sent back to Lane 4, the interrogation continued as if he had never left. ‘What do you eat with those lamb chops?’ Mashed potatoes, gravy and steamed (yes, steamed) broccoli. Up on the block and gone again. Damn! I needed to talk to this kid. Third time around... ‘why do you like lamb chops?’ My Mom cooks them for me and they’re good. Ahhhh, there it is. His Mom cooks them for him. She doesn’t cook lamb chops for herself and chicken nuggets for him, she cooks one meal for the whole family and as a result he sees this as his real food as well. Okay, so this isn’t some kind of earth-shattering find. I knew this already. But now I had proof. Very scientific proof. I tell you this story because it was a highlight of my day and because my kids are mad about peas for a similar reason. I love peas and have been inviting my kids to share my love of peas since they were born. Happily, they have all accepted.

It took me a long time to love peas. I was brought up tolerating the little green nemesis and swallowing them whole as a way to ‘just get it over with’. The peas of my youth (and maybe your youth as well - unless you’re under 32 or had a mother who could cook) were born of aluminum cans. In fact, all the vegetables of my youth came from those same cans. Peas, corn, Veg All (do you guys know about this dreadful stuff? It was the most prevalent form of vegetable at our dinner table....oh how those lima beans still manage to give me nightmares)... unless it came from a can, I was not likely to have known it. Peas were tasteless mush. Actually, not tasteless. They tasted like metal. Mushy metal with a viral green color. So swallow them whole I did. The taste buds were never engaged.

Around the time I turned 30, I decided to explore gardening. My husband and I purchased a house out in the country. The house came with 2 1/2 acres of land. We didn’t have any kids. I had quit working. What’s a girl to do with that kind of scenario? Well, first thing is to plant 32 tomato plants and every other kind of fruit/vegetable you can get your hands on. Ignorance being bliss here, of course. One of those plants (actually six of those plants - because I only bought those 6-pack cells) were peas. The plan was that I would grow them and see what I could do with them. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS SACRED!!....who had been keeping this secret from me?!!! Peas - as God intended them to be - are amazing! I would hover over the plants until they finally kicked out a pea pod for me to consume on the spot. Love isn’t a strong enough word. When my kids came along, they were treated to the same delight. They don’t know that canned peas exist and I’m sure they would weep if they did. We eat a lot of frozen peas, but fresh is the preferred choice. I guess this would be the time to mention that while my four children look forward to eating meals that include peas, as well as sliding them out of their pods and eating them raw, my 45 year old husband will not. He refuses. He has never embraced the beauty. I believe the culinary traumas of his youth, in this case, go beyond anything I can fix.

The recipe that follows is called Pasta With Peas. You can call it whatever you want. I created it because we were crunched for time (four kids = four different directions after school), needed dinner and had these things on hand. I threw it together without too much thought, but it has become a regular part of our repertoire and I’ve made it for friends as well. Asparagus has been substituted for peas (once) in the past, but the general consensus was that that should never happen again. Leave the peas out if you must, but you will be missing a critical part of this recipe’s charm (last plug for the lovable pea, I promise).

One note about this recipe....the name Pasta with Peas might be a bit misleading. The name implies that the following recipe is light and healthy. I could, as easily (and probably much more accurately), have named it ‘Pasta with bacon, heavy cream and 20 grams of fat’. I don’t really know how many grams of fat are in it, but it’s not a light meal. When my kids say ‘what’s for dinner?’ and I say Pasta with Peas, they know what I’m talking about, thus the name of the dish. Disclaimer is now complete....the cooking can commence...

Pasta With Peas

12 oz bacon (you can use much less if you want. I/we just love bacon)
1 onion (I use sweet) - chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp cornstarch
2/3 cup water
1 lb pasta
1/4 tsp nutmeg
10 oz. frozen peas (you can also add fresh)

In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to manufacturers recommendations for al dente pasta. We usually use spaghetti, but any kind of pasta will work. I used rigatoni for the picture above.

Chop bacon and cook in large/deep frying pan for 3 - 4 minutes over medium-high heat. Remove bacon to plate with paper towels to soak up grease. Add onions to bacon drippings and cook until translucent - about 5 minutes. Add chicken stock and heavy cream. Rise to a simmer and let cook for about 5 minutes.

Mix cornstarch and water in small bowl. Slowly add cornstarch/water mixture to chicken stock/heavy cream mixture, stirring continuously while adding. Mixture will thicken. Add nutmeg. Add peas to sauce. (If adding fresh peas, remove sauce from heat before stirring into mix) Stir to incorporate. Remove from heat. Add pasta to sauce. Toss together to blend and serve.

Very easy. Smells good. Extremely comforting. All good!



Things I learned today:

1. If you create one meal per sitting, your kids will know that your food is their food and will rise to the culinary level of sophistication you set for them.

2. Midwestern kids don’t ‘get’ New England humor/sarcasm.

3. If you really pressure a kid whose favorite food is a plain hot dog on a bun, they will admit that they’ve thought about trying ketchup.