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Ramps are Spring's gift. - Use accordingly. By Mario Batali
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Ramps are Spring's gift.
Use accordingly.
By Mario Batali
on the rampage!
I have harped for years and years on the
joy and deliciousness of geo-speci� c and
local ingredients eaten “in season,” and with
some mirth have seen the crowds, certainly
not due to my rantings, at the Union
Square Greenmarket become quite intense
over the last 10 years. The search for the
uniquely regional starts at the beginning of
the very last phrase of spring in the mid-
Atlantic region, south to the Carolinas and
as far north as the Berkshires. Ramps are
the very � rst green leaves to force their
way up through the layer of last autumn’s
dormant foliage lying in preparation for its
transformation into next year’s soil.
The � rst ramp’s appearance in April is more
exciting than any Groundhog Day festival and
is fervently celebrated like opening day for the
Yankees by foodies all over, as the � rst sign
that local produce is, in fact, on its way again!
Ramps, the A Rod of the 860-or-so members
of the eligible lily family allium, are greeted with
a joy and nearly religious fervor much like the
annual reliqui� cation of San Gennaro’s blood,
as a reaf� rmation of faith to all locavores.
Sweet and pungent, green in the lily leaf and
white at the base, ramps look like a more
seductive scallion and grow only wild that
I know of, but who cares about cultivated?
They grow in vast, nearly in� nite numbers
in wet mulchy wetlands starting the second
week of April in the Hudson river valley
and are quite trendy at about 8-12 bucks a
pound. They literally show up for 3-4 weeks
max and then disappear again till next April.
We pick them for an hour or so each year up
at my wife’s family farm in Dutchess county
and I can be picky enough to pick them on
a gentle slope, just so I do not have to bend
down as far to unearth the sweet treasure. I
simply cannot get enough of the leeky � avored
leaves and plan more than a few meals each
April, around the weekend closest to my
son Leo’s birthday, where we eat full ramps
feasts. We start with soft goat cheese with
pickled ramps and a few slices of salami, then
proceed to spaghetti with ramps, toasted
garlic, hot peppers and pecorino. We � nish
the “rampage” with a roasted chicken with
ramps stuffed both inside the cavity and under
the crisp, salty skin and serve the bird with
sautéed ramps doused with a ramp-� avored
vinegar that my pal Jim Harrison sends me
from his secret ramp stash in Michigan, where
the � avor is slightly more herbaceous and a
touch more “winey.”
In the Appalachian Mountains in the ‘30s
and ‘40s, due to the fact that they were free,
ramps were often considered menu items
only to the poor. A ramp boil was a festival
with a country stomp and a giant pot of the
green � esta served as the main course. The
subsequent fragrance of the eaters was
recognized as a sign of the house “on the
other side of the tracks.” But in the sweet
and tangy 21st century, the ramp freak � ag is
� own with joy and pride at this point in time,
as the celebration of true local and seasonal.
SPAGHETTI WITH RAMPS
Ingredients:
1 pound spaghetti Barilla
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
8 ounces fresh ramps, trimmed of
root ends
1 tablespoon red chili fl akes
kosher salt
½ cup freshly grated pecorino
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
Makes 6 nice appetizer servings.
Bring 8 quarts of water to a boil in a
spaghetti pot and add 2 tablespoons of salt.
Heat olive oil in a 12-14 inch sauté pan over
medium high heat. Separate ramps by the
white root ends and the leafy green top. Add
root ends to the pan and sauté until tender,
about 2 minutes. Add salt and chili � akes.
Add the greens and sauté until wilted, about a
minute. Remove from heat and set aside. Add
the spaghetti to the pot and cook according to
the package directions, until tender but still al
dente. Drain pasta and add it to the sauté pan.
Place over medium high heat and toss gently
to coat the pasta with the sauce.
Divide pasta evenly among four warm
plates. Drizzle olive oil over top and sprinkle
with pecorino and then breadcrumbs.
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