Totally Rad Spring Cooking: Smashed Peas on Toast with Fresh Mozzarella

Most kids (I was one) hate eating their peas.  Reasons for this probably have to have something to do with the fact that peas are usually served to kids in their natural state, perhaps steamed, with a little butter and lacking even the essential salt and pepper.  Peas ‘uninspired’, I think I’d call them now.  It’s too bad, because peas really are awesome, and very versatile in many ways.  In this interpretation, I’ve smashed them up with some other delicious ingredients and spread them on toast rubbed with garlic.  Call it a Pea bruschetta if you will.

Some of my other favorite pea interpretations are the wasabi pea and when they’re in my fried rice.  Both of those are Asian interpretations, so I’ve set out to try a western European approach.  This recipe was adapted from Jamie Oliver, who’s cooking I really enjoy. For me, one of the best and most welcoming signs of the growing season is when the peas come to the farmer’s market. It’s then that I know the tomatoes aren’t far away and summer is just about upon us in New England.

This recipe is simple to make and will impress any guest as an appetizer or a side to a main event – probably because it’s fairly elegant once it’s topped with the mozzarella and balsamic.  It’s a classic British/Italian fusion dish that are oh so common.  Here’s how it went:

Around 1 lb of peas (weighed in their shells) – this should be about 50 pods give or take…
1 small handful of fresh basil – finely chopped
5-6 medium leaves of fresh oregano – finely chopped
Around 12 mint leaves – finely chopped
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Zest from 1/4-1/3 a lemon
Around 1/3 cup of Parmesan – Finely grated (use a Microplane if you have one)
1-2 medium balls of fresh mozzarella
1 medium sourdough baguette
2-3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar – Aged (the good stuff) if you have it (get it here)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Start by shelling the peas into a medium bowl.  Once you have them all removed from their pods, start mashing them up either in a mortar and pestle or in a food processor (I did a combination of the two).  Once you have all of the peas good and mashed up, add in the herbs (or combine them in the food processor (**Side note: if you’re using a food processor to do this, make sure you try to minimize the amount of cycles you give it!  The coarser the pea mixture, the better).

Add in the olive oil next and mix it together.  Your mixture should be somewhere around the consistency of a coarse paste.  If it needs some more moisture, add in a bit more oil.  Next add in the lemon juice and Parmesan cheese – this will really tie the mixture together.  Stir it all together and you’re ready to go.

To make a dish out of it, I sliced up my sour baguette on the diagonal and toasted it in my toaster – giving it a little color but still leaving it soft in the center.  Once the toasts are ready, take a clove of raw garlic and rub it a few times over the surface of the toasted bread.  I then took the pea mixture and spread it over the bread (the side that I rubbed with the garlic).  Then take a thin piece of Mozzarella and place it over the top, add a little salt and drizzle some of the balsamic vinegar over all of them at the end to really tie things up nice.  Serve as an app and any dinner or party and you’ll make quick friends!  Enjoy -