Recent Dinners, Part Two: I Ate Peas

I finally remembered a way to use peas that wasn't awful. They weren't my CSA peas unfortunately (though I look forward to using my now-local-pea-enriched compost next year), but at least now I can be prepared should I get them again.

The dish was inspired by one I had at Petit Pois many months ago: gnocchi with a roasted carrot sauce with peas. In my version, I used tri-colored gnocchi, organic carrots, homegrown thyme, a sauteed quarter of a local onion, a clove of local garlic, organic chicken stock, a dollop of local sour cream...and some peas I found in my freezer.

Topped with a little parmesan, the result, I'm happy to say, was quite good. A little French, a little Italian, it definitely reminded me of the Petit Pois dish. As I ate, however, it dawned on me that the dish was missing one crucial ingredient: bacon. Granted, almost any dish could be improved by adding bacon, but in this case, I decided it was especially important. The salty pork fat meaty-ness would balance the sweetness of the carrots and peas, and I think the texture would complement the gnocchi wonderfully. (Now I just need to find some local bacon.)

So, if you're reading this and are one of the five other people going to the beach with me later in July, you can start salivating now. I may play around with the presentation a bit (it looked kind of blah), but the bacon-ized version of this dish will be on the menu.