GASTRONORMOUS

Ramps, also called Ramson or wild leeks, are in their brief season right now in the Northern US. Food people in New York City have been going cuckoo for them over the past few years, and for good reason.

I had never heard of them until I saw an interview with Mario Batalli two years ago about using them in a recipe of his, and I wondered what in the world he was talking about. I turned to the internet—and my grocer—to find out.

Ramps are native to to North America, and are not cultivated, but grow wild along river banks. The flavor is often descibed as a garlic-onion combo, though I think there is also a unique, very earthy element in the mix, too. They are especially popular in Appalachia, where the funky allium is celebrated every April at the festival “The Feast of Ramson” (aka the “Ramp Feed”). Ramps must be an east-coast-only affair because growing up in California, where there happen to be river banks aplenty, I never heard of them.

Last spring, Hubs and I found a recipe online for Ramps Risotto, and followed it word for word, except for the part where I accidentally blanched the ramps in boiling water for 3 minutes rather than 3 seconds. That turned out not to be a very successful dish.

Last weekend we spied some ramps at the local farmers market, and were able to snag two of the last four bunches left at the stand. I gave ramps risotto another try, but this time based it on my own basic recipe for risotto rather than one from the internet. I did not blanch the ramps at all because I thought with all the cooking it was going to do with the rice, that was sort of a redundant step. I cut the white bulbs, purple stems, and the greens of the ramps in a thin slice (for the greens, I did a chiffonade). I decided not to add any vegetables other than the ramps in order to let their unique flavor shine.

Ramps Risotto

4 cups low sodium vegetable or chicken broth
1 TB butter, plus a few tsp olive oil
2 bunches of ramps, thinly sliced (or about 1 cup each of sliced whites and greens)
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup arborio or other short white grained rice
1/2 cup white (un-oaked) wine
3/4 cup shredded parmigiano reggiano
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat broth and leave on a simmer, covered.

Meanwhile, heat butter and oil on medium heat in the bottom of large sauce pan. Add sliced white bulbs and purple reedy stems, and a few grinds of black pepper, to pan and sautee until soft, but not brown.

Add the rice and sautee for about a minute, until rice is well coated with oil–do not brown the rice. Add wine and stir gently but constantly until wine is absorbed. Add one ladleful of broth and stir until absorbed, then add another ladle. Continue this process until the rice is almost al dente; this should take 25 or so minutes. Now stir in the ramps greens and cook a few minutes more until greens are cooked through and rice is tender (but not mushy!). [Please note that you do not need to use all the broth. Cook until the risotto is done, not until the broth is gone. Conversely, if you run out of broth, test the texture of the risotto before assuming it is done, you may need to add even more broth, or use water.]

Turn off the heat and stir in the cheese the cheese.

Now taste again and season if necessary with salt and pepper (it might not need any salt as the cheese is pretty salty). Also feel free here to add more cheese or some butter if you think it needs it. Serve garnished with shredded parm.

Makes at least 2 servings.

This risotto was delicious, and though ramps are notoriously pungent, this cooking process mellowed it into near-subtlety. If we can find ramps at the farmers market this weekend, I am going to try this delicious-looking spaghetti with ramps from Epicurious.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Food musings, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.