Ramp Pizza

Yum! I love this pizza. I saw this recipe for thin crust pizza using tortillas and it's amazing. I highly recommend it! I decided to try it with a white pizza to showcase the great ramps I got at the market. It's crispy, salty, gooey, has bite from the ramps and savory chewiness in the bacon. 

Seared Scallops with Ramp Butter

This is a great spring dinner. The puree is a perfect canvas for the scallops, and the ramp butter is a nice flavor and glaze. Be sure the scallops are dry before you sear them to get a nice sear. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

10 sea scallops

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp ramp butter (recipe here)

Sunchoke, Celeriac, and potato puree

salt and pepper

Ramp Spaghetti

This is a Maria Batali recipe - very simple and just highlighting the ramp flavor. This is a perfect for a quick weeknight dinner.

Ramp Crostini

Ramp recipe #2! This is also super simple and great for hors d'oeuvres in spring.

Chilled Cucumber Ramp Soup

If you're in New York City, you might have heard that it's ramp season. Ramps are wild leeks that come out in April and May. Some people think they're overrated, but I love them. I bought a big bunch from the farmers market and played around with some new recipes this weekend. More to come this week, but I'll start off with the super simple, slightly spicy, very refreshing cucumber soup. (If you can't get ramps, you can use garlic and/or shallots, or scallions.) There are just 6 ingredients and it takes all of 2 minutes to make.

Roasted Chicken Legs and Ramps

 

I, like the rest of New York, am totally into ramps. They're only around for a month or so in the spring, so I try to use them a lot. First ramp dish this year was roasted chicken and ramps. I usually love just tossing the ramps with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and grilling them, so this was similar. The leaves get crispy and the bulbs are sweet. Yum.

This is really simple for a weeknight dinner, and I served it with some peas at Jamie's request.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
4 chicken legs
2 bunches of ramps, roots removed
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 lemon, sliced

Directions:
Heat the oven to 500. Line a baking sheet with tin foil. Toss the chicken and ramps with salt and pepper and olive oil. Put in the oven for 10 minutes, then top the chicken with lemon slices, and put in for another 20 minutes, or until the chicken is nicely browned. Check on the ramps - you'll probably need to remove them 10 minutes before the chicken.

Ramp, Stinging Nettle, and Sunchoke Soup

This soup just oozes spring. I've been totally going overboard with ramps - I made them with duck, made them into pesto, topped them with olive oil and grilled them... I'm drinking the cool aid. Before they go out of season, I wanted at least one more try.

I went to the farmers market yesterday hoping for veggies. I'd been eating a little unhealthily this week, so I needed it. I grabbed some stinging nettles, ramps, and sunchokes all at the same stand and thought it would make a great, springy soup. It did! Very easy to make and takes about 45 minutes. It's a beautiful bright green and goes really well with a parmesan twist from Amy's Bread (or a roll or baguette or any other bread). I can't wait to eat it again for lunch! The sunchokes thicken it up a little, the ramps give it an earthy smoothed out bite, and the nettles are super springy. It tastes great and you feel like you're being healthy. Just don't touch the nettles with your hands until after they're cooked!

Pomegranate-Glazed Seared Duck Breast with Ramps and Crispy Potatoes

I went to the Union Square market yesterday to see what looked good and I decided to try ramps! I've always wanted to cook with them but have never tried. I love garlic, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. I also got a duck breast. I had potatoes at home. I figured I could make something good with this. (Potatoes + duck fat = yum yum yum yum) I saw a good looking recipe from Anne Burell with how to perfectly sear the duck breast, and she used pomegranate molasses (a totally awesome ingredient). I thought hers sounded a little too syrupy sweet, so I changed it up a bit. It was delicious! I highly recommend this for impressing someone for dinner. The pomegranate molasses is tart and sweet and sticky and the duck is rich and salty. The ramps look beautiful on top, and the potatoes are perfect to soak up the extra juice. Make it while there are still ramps!

Serves 2
Ingredients:
3 ramps (bulb and leaves) roots removed, 1 finely diced
1 duck breast, fat scored in a crosshatch pattern
1/2 lb small potatoes
1/4 cup pomegranate molasses
1/4 cup reduced chicken broth (I used a cups worth of bouillon with 1/4 cup water)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/8 tsp (big pinch) cumin
1/8 tsp (big pinch) coriander
1/8 tsp (big pinch) chipotle powder
2 sprigs fresh thyme

Directions:

Mix the pomegranate molasses, chopped ramp, stock, and herbs in a bowl or measuring cup. Heat a skillet to medium-low and put the duck breast and the ramps in (duck skin-side-down).