Ditalini with Sugar Snap Peas and Pancetta – sort of

It’s less than a week until The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook hits the shelves! Although I probably won’t be able to see it in bookstores for a while, I can’t wait to see it on the cookbook table at Guido’s Fresh Marketplace!

One of the first recipes I tested for this cookbook was ditalini with sugar snap peas and pancetta. And then I tested it again several more times! It’s not that it is a difficult recipe – not at all. But, as with many recipes in this cookbook, authors Elisa and Rob wanted a vegetarian version. While conceptually this was not a challenge – mushrooms work beautifully with the flavors of this dish – writing the instructions to account for the different sequencing if you’re using mushrooms versus pancetta in a way that was clear and concise was a challenge.

Back to dinner – Yesterday I foraged for ramps again, probably the last time for this season, and then stopped by the store, looking for a vegetable to use with the ramps in a pasta dish. I saw the sugar snap peas and immediately knew that ramps would be a perfect seasonal substitution for the red onion in the recipe. However shopping is a rather fraught experience these days – go in, follow my list, and leave as soon as possible to allow someone else on the line to enter – and I didn’t remember that we were out of ditalini.

So back home I found a decent substitution, elbows, and this fabulous recipe came together easily with a couple of substitutions. I sautéed the chopped ramp bulbs and stems with the pancetta, then just before the pasta was done, I tossed the chopped ramp leaves in with the sugar snap peas for a minute or two until wilted. 

Lucky for you, this recipe was one of those featured as a sneak peek at Berkshires and Beyond, the companion website for The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook, so you don’t even have to wait until May 19 to make it!