Ramp-o-Rama!

Ramps are another one of those things that make Ohio pretty awesome (along with Jeni's Ice Cream and Barley's Brewing Co, and pretty much everything else I mention in this blog...) Ramps, if you don't live in a state bordering the Appalachian Mountains, grow wild in said mountains and foothills of those mountains, and are a short-lived Spring treat. Part of the allium family, they are sometimes called wild leeks or spring onions. They're a cross in taste (in my opinion) of a scallion and garlic. They are also delicious.

Having first read about ramps last year in Bittman's blog, Bitten, I found some end-of-season stragglers and made them into some pretty delicious biscuits. This year, I was ready for them, and made a beeline to The Hills market this past Saturday morning to pick some up.

Based on my research, I found that you can do a lot of things with ramps to prolong your enjoyment of them. There are several recipes for pickling the bottom white parts, I used the first one here and will probably try this one as well (top right in picture below).

You only pickle the bottom portion, the green leaves can be used in other ways--I blanched half of them, dried them, then tossed them in the food processor with a couple sticks of butter: voila! delicious ramp-butter for use on pastas, breads, or biscuits (top left in picture above)--oooh, actually this might be good on a nice, grilled steak, too. The other half of the greens I did not blanch, I just tossed them in the food processor with a chopped, caramelized shallot, some olive oil, salt and pepper. (Bottom center in picture above.) It's a very, very potent pesto, one that I think will be heavenly cut with a little ricotta and stuffed into ravioli, or maybe mixed into a cream sauce and tossed with some pasta.

I still had half of my ramps to use, so I tossed them with some olive oil and salt and quickly grilled them on a hot grill--they make an excellent side dish, as the grill tempers their natural bite, making them mellow and aromatic.

If you get see these little guys in your local market, pick some up and give them a try at the house--you can probably use them in any way you'd use garlic (in scrambled eggs? on pizza?) I plan on hitting up the markets again this weekend for some more, while the season is still going strong--gotta get them while the gettin's good, you know?