East Meets West (Virginia)

Two ramp recipes. First, ramp carbonara (again), kind of. Short on Italian-style pasta I used udon noodles prepared like regular pasta. It was a great sub. The pork product is homemade pancetta (this recipe, more or less, sans curing salts and hung for a month) made with Tea Hills whey fed pork. Guanciale and a lardo type thing are still hanging in the basement.

The eggs are from Plum Creek, and were mixed with parmesan and lots of black pepper. The ramps are chopped greens, some mixed with the pasta when the egg mixture and pasta were combined, and some just as a garnish on top. The sauce was thicker then it looks at the bottom of the picture, and clung to the noodles well. There are lots of carbonara recipes on the internet--here are two of mine.

And here's some super fresh AK halibut from Kate's Fish, at the West Side Market, with some mashed North Union Farmers Market potatoes and a ramp sauce. The seasoned fish was pan seared in a mix of grapeseed oil and butter and fined in a 450 oven.

The ramp sauce is simple and definitely all purpose. It starts with quickly blanching ramp leaves and then cooling them down in ice water. The damp leaves are then blended with a mild oil (I used grapeseed), salt, and pepper. Then, just a bit of butter is blended into the oil/ramp mixture. If the butter doesn't completely incorporate in the blender (not all of us have a Vita-Mix), the sauce can be gently heated and whisked. It holds up well and is mild but still rampy. Like a seasonal chimichurri. Other herbs can be added, but I like it as is.

Both dishes called for ramp leaves only. The bulbs are just too good not to pickle.