Spring Pea "Hummus" with Shaved Parmesan
In last week's Wayward Seed CSA share, I received about a pound of unshelled English peas. After freeing them from their pods, I was left with a bowlful of tiny, beautiful, bright green orbs and decided that since there were so few of them, I needed to really showcase their flavor. I remembered that Chef John Dornback of Basi Italia had offered a pea puree appetizer at the Taste of Dine Originals event, and decided to use that dish as inspiration. They had served the lightly mashed peas on a single-serving spoon topped with shaved Parmesan. Since I had just purchased a baguette from Omega Bakery at the North Market (not-so shameless plug: Go there! Get their bread! It's amazing!), I decided throw together a pea and Parmesan "hummus" to spread on said bread. Twenty minutes later, I had a party-worthy appetizer that looked and tasted of early summer. The sweetness of the peas is balanced by the salty ...