Rough Pea Paté

I’m a legume lover. Peas, french beans, runner beans, broad beans, soya beans, just give me a podded fruit and I’m a happy camper. Preferably fresh, when they are at their best, but I do also love using dried and even some frozen legumes. But fresh is best, in my opinion. I’m definitely not alone in this judging by the large amounts of fresh peas and beans being bought at the markets. But the other day I was having a conversation with a friend about what to do with a glut of fresh peas he had.

Well, first of all, I said, you could look at an old post of mine ( here ) for the classic way to serve peas with lettuce and cream. Yum. Or, I suggested, make a crushed pea base for some shellfish or chicken as I once did ( here ). Or even, add a twist to that and make a rough pea paté and serve it on some really good bread. Which is what I said I’d do and did. It’s simple and quick and full of fresh pea-ness!

I served my rough pea paté on toasted brown soda bread

Rough Pea Paté

I’ve given amounts below to be helpful but this is less a recipe and more a set of guidelines. I had mascarpone so I used that and it worked but if I had ricotta, that, I imagine, would also work. Relax, this is supposed to be an easy dish to make.

Serves 2-3

750 -500 grams fresh peas in their pods
2 tablespoons mascarpone
25 grams pecorino or parmesan, grated
olive oil
salt & pepper
1 tablespoon fresh mint, approx, finely chopped
lemon to squeeze

Pour yourself a glass of something refreshing. Make mine a chilled dry white, thank you.

Turn on some inspiring music (each to their own mood).

Now sit down and enjoy the podding process and restrain yourself from popping too many fresh peas into your mouth.

Cook the peas in boiling salted water until tender, strain, refresh in iced water and drain well. This will help keep the fresh green colour.

Roughly mash the peas with the grated pecorino, mascarpone, a drizzle of olive oil. squeeze of lemon and season well. Add some finely chopped fresh mint or, if none to hand, then perhaps some fresh oregano or chives. But remember you want to preserve the lovely delicate pea taste so don’t go crazy with the herbs! Let it rest for 20 minutes, if you can, for the flavours to mingle.

Serve on some crunchy toast (brown soda bread complements it beautifully) and some farm butter – no spreads please! A very pleasant starter to an informal meal.

And if you’re wondering what would be my favourite legume, the answer is… lovely, lovely broad beans. Time consuming little beasts that need their bitter skin removed but worth the effort. Some freshly cooked broad beans, a dollop of thick greek yoghurt, slick of green olive oil, crushed salt, colourful weeny addition of finely chopped skinned and deseeded tomato (a dish needs to look good, remember), some warm crusty bread and I’m deliriously sated. You could of course make a rough broad bean paté following the guideline above.