These bread sticks are brought to you by Sweet Paul Magazine. Well, more specifically they are *inspired* by a photo that I saw in his magazine, but the recipe that I used is actually my usual grissini recipe. I absolutely love the presentation, and they taste pretty damn good too.
Pet Peeve: The fact that Pepperidge Farms Frozen Puff Pastry comes in a package of two, and yet, they aren’t individually wrapped. The consequence of this is that you actually end up having to thaw both pieces and shouldn’t really refreeze one of them. I always ponder what to do with the second sheet, because invariably I only need one. I also ended up having some leftover mushrooms and half a bag of spinach from another endeavor, so I used the puff to make this savory strudel. Great as a brunch dish or lunch with a salad.
Things to do with Ramps, Part 4: Make hummus. Yes, still stuck on my ramps (ransoms, Bärlauch) kick and here is a quick and simple recipe that pulls out some of the suble garlicy flavor of the ramps. The grilled lemons add both acidity and sweetness. Comes together in 2-30 minutes and is a great addition to the usual pia chips or veggies. Note: I grilled the whole ramps but then only used the bulbs in the hummus, eating the greens on the side. You can use the whole ramps (bulbs and greens) in the hummus, but when I made it like that the first time, I thought that the greens actually made the hummus too green.
The other day, I made this Ramp Chimichurri which is out of this world, and I mentioned that you can use it on a bunch of things besides just steak. Here is one of those things. The chimichurri moved this from “hey, I have a bunch of random ingredients that I need to use up before they go off” to “wow, this is one heck of a snack in just under 30 minutes of work (and would be much less except that you should salt the eggplant for a bit, lest they get soggy). Cheeky little snack in the middle of my Thursday.
Another Spring-like endeavor! And I think that Pea Pesto might be my favorite new type of pesto. It is light and refreshing and can be used cold as a spread as in this application, or used on pasta in a warm dish. This open-faced sandwich can be dressed up with the addition of cherry tomatoes too. Yum!