I first discovered ramps a few months ago while reading another food blog. The author was raving about how excited she was to have found ramps at the local farmer's market and couldn't wait to begin using them. Unfortunately, I was reading an old posting at the time and it was not yet ramp season in the real world. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, spring was alive and well (it's turned oddly cold in the District since), and ramps made an appearance at the Dupont farmer's market. I was thrilled. Unfortunately, the market is only open on Sundays and I've been out of town or preoccupied for the last couple, so this was my first weekend to go ramp shopping and, as with most things that the average person wouldn't find exciting, I was bursting with excitement and anticipation about my upcoming marketing expedition.
Shepherd was equally excited about the day of cooking I had planned (not really, but I told myself she was and allowed her to stop at the dog park on the way back from the farmer's market as a reward for her good behavior) and accompanied me on my joyous expedition. I'd spent the past couple of days scouting recipes in my free time, hoping to find just the right dish for which to use ramps the first time. After much deliberation, I landed on pizza. As I've mentioned before, pizza is my happy food and since I hadn't made it in a while, I decided this was the perfect time for it to return to my life. Having never bought ramps before, but learning through my research that they are a foodie favorite, I was slightly nervous about supply and demand and worried we'd show up with no ramps to be found. Luckily, either I was so far behind the curve on this one that people are already over them (although I saw them in at least four dishes during dinner Saturday night, so I'm choosing to believe they're still in their hayday) or we were early enough that they hadn't all been snatched up, because we arrived to a table bursting will all the ramps I could ever want. I snatched up a bunch (hesitant to buy more than one the first go round least I end up hating them...although I was fairly certain that wouldn't be the case), as well as some other produce and then was on my way (mentally skipping with joy over my purchase).
Part of my haul from the market...the radishes served as a cooking snack :)
So, as I mentioned, I chose pizza for my first ramp-based dish. I was drawn to this recipe because it also allowed me to use up some of the asparagus I'd purchased a few weeks back and tucked away in my freezer for safe keeping. To culminate this joyous occasion, I didn't have any dough pre-made, so Mr. Red got to join the party and breakout his dough hook for the first time! It was yet another delightful culinary experience.
Mr. Red getting some play time once again, this time breaking in the dough hook
White Cheese Pizza with Ramps (and other fun veggies)
[Adapted from The Kitchen Sink]
Ingredients
- 10 ramps (medium size)
- 8-10 asparagus spears
- 4-5 cherry tomatoes
- Baby spinach (1-2 cups)
- 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- Olive oil (for brushing the crust)
- Whole wheat crust or dough (I used this recipe again, but omitted the rosemary, although in hindsight that would've been good too)
Ready to bake
Preparation
- Roll out pizza dough, brush with olive oil and cook at 450F for 8-10 minutes
- While dough is cooking, wash and cut veggies as desired
- After removing dough from oven, cover with cheese and veggies, season with salt and pepper, and cook at 400 F for 8-10 minutes
The ramps did not disappoint, I'm officially a fan!
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