I guess the season is almost over by now, but that's ok; they're too expensive to even consider on any sort of regular basis. This bunch, for example, was $4. I haven't ever bought ramps before for exactly that reason. If we had access to a convenient backwoods, things might be different, but this is Brooklyn, and we don't. So yeah.

Now, however, we have another consideration. We're moving back to California. Guess what is not going to be at all available for the entire time we live there? So when I found a tableful of ramps at the farmer's market, I bought some.

So the question was what to do with them. Pickled ramps, while obviously fairly popular among the canning population, were out due to the exigencies of the move. I also just wanted to straight up try them before I packed them away for months. Some simple preparation was obviously the best bet.

I made pasta with olive oil, ramps, mushrooms, and minimal salt and pepper. It was great. I softened the chopped bulbs with the mushrooms, added the chopped greens at the very end, tossed everything together, and ate it. Half the bunch was still left.

Next step: refinement. After we went to Candle 79, I had even better ideas. Our market hasn't had morels or fiddleheads, which is no surprise, but it also hasn't even had asparagus, which I find bizarre. I did have ordinary creminis and green beans, however. So this time I made the pasta with olive oil, ramps, mushrooms, green beans, and chopped parsley. I also had a little chunk of sheep's milk cheese, which was an excellent addition. Crunchy salt, crumbly cheese, tender pasta, firm beans, chewy mushrooms: awesome.