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Ramps Pesto

May 17, 2013 by Jennifer Che 6 Comments

Ramp Pesto
Perhaps I’m ignorant about food, or maybe the craze has just popped up recently, but I had never heard of ramps until about 2 years ago.

And it wasn’t until last spring that I tasted ramps for the first time (at a restaurant) and proceeded to fall in love with that pungent, garlicky flavor.

And then it wasn’t until this spring – just a couple weeks ago, in fact – that I finally saw them in the market. I pounced on my chance to pick up a few stalks so that I could finally, finally try cooking these gorgeous plants myself.
Ramps Fiddleheads
Ramps, also known as spring onions, wild garlic, or wild leeks, grow wild throughout the forests in Massachusetts and pretty much up and down the East Coast. These vegetables are one of the first things to pop up in the spring, and people go crazy when they appear for their short, short season.

Ramps are not really cultivated, so if you see ramps on the menu or the market, someone has gone out foraging for them. Some have expressed concern about the fanatacism surrounding ramps leading to over harvesting of the delicate plant.  In fact, Quebec has outlawed the sale of ramps since 1995, called it a “threatened” species.

I think ramps are still growing healthily in many parts of New England. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are patches that have been picked in an unsustainable manner.

With this knowledge and understanding about ramps, I approached my first (and likely only encounter) with ramps this spring with a heightened level of appreciation and awareness.
_DSC2063
Ramps are both garlicky and “onion-y” – pungent, almost spicy, and very fragrant. I think they work super well in pesto because they act both as the green “leafy” agent and the strongly flavored “garlicky” agent.

I always hated peeling all those garlic cloves when making traditional basil pesto, so this saves a previously annoying step!
_DSC2066
Making ramp pesto is super easy and there’s really no “exact” recipe. Essentially, you need ramps, some sort of nuts, some sort of hard, salty cheese (grated, please), and oil. As for nuts, try using toasted walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, or almonds. You could also use pine nuts, the traditional nut used in basil pesto.

And that’s it!

Throw everything into a food processor except the oil. Give it a whirl until you have a chunky puree.

Turn the machine back on and start adding the oil in a stream. Add enough until you are happy with the consistency.
Ramp Pesto
You want a smooth paste.

The whole process takes all of 2 minutes, really.

Taste test it, though. You can add a bit of salt if you think it needs it (it all depends on how salty your cheese was). Alternatively, you could add more cheese too if you so desire. It’s really up to you.

Once you’re satisfied with the flavor of the pesto, you can do all sorts of things with it. You can freeze a portion of it for later use. You can throw a dollop of it in soup (yum!). You can eat it with bread, or you can serve it with pasta!
Ramp Pesto
You can see what I chose to do. I eye-balled the whole thing and didn’t really measure exactly. I just added enough pesto so that it nicely covered all the pasta I had made. If you have leftover pesto, you can always freeze the rest and eat it with crostini or a tomato mozzarella salad.

In my case, there was quite a bit of pesto (compared to pasta). I don’t mind a saucier pasta at all, so I threw it all in. It’s your call.

Enjoy!
_DSC2074

Ramps Pesto
Serves about 2

1 bunch of ramps (see my photo below, maybe 10 small stalks?)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
1/2 cup nuts (many recipes use walnuts or pistachios; I had marcona almonds on hand, which worked fine)
~1/3 cup olive oil, give or take
optionally salt
1 lb fresh pasta
Ramps Fiddleheads

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Filed Under: Pasta, Recipe, Vegetables, Vegetarian

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Comments

  1. Dee says

    May 17, 2013 at 8:56 am

    Yum! Where did you buy your ramps?

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  2. Jennifer Che says

    May 17, 2013 at 10:48 am

    Whole Foods in Central Square, Cambridge! They weren’t labeled, so you had to know what to look for. 🙂

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  3. howard says

    May 17, 2013 at 12:05 pm

    i just saw ramps and fiddleheads at russo’s and thought of you!

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  4. Channon Doughty says

    May 17, 2013 at 9:39 pm

    You aren’t out of touch. Ramps, like rhubarb and dandelion greens, are a new craze, but these foods have been around and use by poor country folk for many many years. My Nana’s (b.1914) old recipe collection includes many for dandelions (flowers too) and rhubarb, but no one ate ramps in our part of VA because they were so very strong and stinky.

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  5. Jennifer Che says

    May 18, 2013 at 12:06 am

    Funny! I do remember growing up and seeing dandelion greens in the supermarket in Ohio. I guess those grew pretty natively in the Midwest but just not ramps. 🙂

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  6. In and Around Town says

    May 20, 2013 at 8:22 pm

    Love the idea of using ramps for a pesto! such a great idea!

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Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
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