Wednesday, April 27, 2011

White Asparagus & Ricotta "Mini Malfatti" with a Ramp & Pea Pesto for the April 5 Star Makeover

The theme for the April 5 Star Makeover - hosted by the always-fabulous Natasha of 5 Star Foodie and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! - centers around a quintessential spring ingredient, white asparagus. As Natasha rightly points out, in Germany people are going nuts right about now for both the white and green varieties, and having just returned from a too-brief two days in Vienna, I can tell you that the Viennese are also asparagus-mad. It was easy to get inspired for this challenge being around so much asparagus love!

Bärlauch, literally bear's garlic, is a delicious wild garlic native to Central Europe, and like asparagus, it's currently turning up on many an Austrian chef's menu.  I wanted to get the flavor of this distinctive seasonal ingredient  in my asparagus dish, but it's simply not available in the U.S. I despaired of finding anything to recreate bärlauch's delicate bite, until I did some research and discovered that it's a close cousin of ramps, a wild leek that's found in my neck of the woods. Once picked, it only lasts a few days, and to get it you either need to forage for it or find a chef with a stash.

And then I discovered that an awesome  local restaurant, Bluegrass Tavern (I wrote about the chef in the Urbanite, you can check out that article here) was having a special one-day-only sidewalk market ... and that they were going to have some ramps. Oh, happy day! I got there early and scored four bunches:
Next stop: the grocery store, where I managed to grab the very last bunch of white asparagus in the place. Whew.

Now all that remained was to make my dish. Insofar as malfatti means "badly formed," I think my dish is aptly named. To be honest, it's not exactly what I originally had in mind - I wanted to make larger gnudi, but my mixture was too soft - and so  I had to adjust. According to Poppa Trix, who declared the dish a success,  it worked out well in the end, but I always have a hard time enjoying something that doesn't  come out exactly as I want. It's the control freak in me.

But, as you are not (I presume) suffering from a preconceived notion about my mini malfatti, I expect that you will be able to enjoy them just as Poppa Trix did, and so I will share the recipe here, along with a few tips that I learned the hard way.

Start by steaming a pound of white asparagus into mushy oblivion. Ring it out, and roast it at 200 degrees for about an hour to dry it out. Puree this. To this, add 1 1/2 cups of ricotta that has been drained overnight, 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp salt, a few grinds of pepper, a dash of paprika, and 2 to 4 egg yolks, plus one egg.

Why 2 to 4 you ask? Well, it was the eggs that tripped me up. I was modeling the method on the Swiss chard gnudi I made here, which called for four egg yolks, but I didn't take into account the extra moisture the asparagus would bring to the table.  I dumped all the eggs in at once and was left with a mushy mess, to which I had to add more flour until it would bind. Instead, I should have started with two eggs and kept going until the mixture would hold together. When I tried to form my large gnudi, the poor things just collapsed like pancakes.

Assuming you achieve the proper consistency, you could make large quenelles, as I wanted to, or you could make smaller, robin's-egg-sized ones, as I did here. Simply scoop up a heaping teaspoon of the mixture, plop it into a wine glass that's been filled with 1 tablespoon of flour, and give it a swirl. (I outlined the process photographically here.)  Place the mini malfatti on a floured cookie tray and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. In small batches, plop them into vigorously boiling salted water and remove them immediately when they float.

Even though they weren't what I wanted, I must admit they were soft and light, and the flavor of the asparagus really shone through.  They went perfectly with my new favorite thing, ramp and pea pesto:
I adore this stuff, and could eat it with a spoon. And it's so simple. I used the greens from 2 bunches of ramps, along with a handful of the ramp bulbs, 1/2 cup of peas, 1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds, salt, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil. Just whizz it all together and adjust everything until it's the consistency of ... well, of pesto. The onion-y, garlicky bite of the ramps is offset by the sweetness of the peas and almonds.  This went so well with the subtle flavor of the asparagus malfatti, and the leftovers are fabulous on chicken, pasta, toast - anything!

Don't forget to check out all of the other awesome asparagus dishes - Natasha and Lazaro will post a round up on their respective blogs on Friday. Happy spring!





30 comments:

  1. Lovely presentation as always... sounds fabulous !

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  2. These "mini-malfatti" would sure be a hit with 5 Star Foodie Junior, and I'm all ramps-crazy right now so definitely loving your pesto, a terrific accompaniment!

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  3. This dish looks so cute! And delicious because I adore pesto.

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  4. What a great dish! like mini fluffy gnocchi. I can just imagine tasting one! And a perfect accompaniment to the pea pesto- I absolutely love it!!

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  5. Sounds terrific! Love the look of the pesto...

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  6. Love it! Looks like something I would put on almost anything!

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  7. This is such an elegant make-over. Being a west coast person, I have never even tried ramps before, let alone cooked with them. But they have a romantic quality in my mind, and each spring I read about them and wonder what they are like. Nice post. GREG

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  8. looking forward to picking up some white asparagus myself - the malfatti look "well formed" to me!
    : j

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  9. This is definitely one of the most creative uses for white asparagus I have ever seen. Fantastic dish.

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  10. I think one of the things I love most about blogging is the story behind the dish... working through the issues. ONce upon a time, in the heyday of magazines... we all felt like dolts when things didn't work.... when they weren't perfect. Well, we don't have the luxury of 20 tries and without the advice about what could go wrong (as apposed to the voice of god recipe)
    we would make sad mistakes. You have brilliantly shown your road to success... It is a great looking dish with all the flavors of spring. I am loving it! Malfatti are cool little guys.

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  11. Love the use of ramps here. Another marvelously constructed course.

    Bravo

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  12. I haven't seen any fresh white asparagus, if i get i will try this. looks yumm.

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  13. I was looking for the white asparagus (which I adore) in your pictures, but then read the post and realized they were in the mini malfatti... I'd forgotten that this is the 5-Star Makeover! And your search for the ramps sounded like a series of very fortunate events. It's funny, isn't it, how when you really want something, the universe rallies around and it turns up right under your nose? Now, about that quest to meet Bono....

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  14. wow it looks amazing and I love your passion for finding ingredients awesome

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  15. Trix, I've told you this before, but gotta tell you again...I LOVE your creativity!!! You're amazing!
    And that pesto sounds fantastic!

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  16. This looks fantastic! I really want to make them but I just can't find them anywhere! And all of the farmer's markets around me don't start till June :(

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  17. Thanks for the welcome and I proclaim you gnocchi Queen, of course it was a must for this white asparagus ingredient. The pesto looks amazing, got to find ramps.

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  18. WOW. I feel like I say this to almost every dish for this month but really that's how I feel. It's so creative and beautiful. Not only does Poppa Trix love it, but also me and everyone else will too!

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  19. and this is why we get along so well, neither of us are normally impress with our efforts...and another thing, your baking classes have given you such a better understanding of how ingredients work, how they hold up during cooking and your knowledge is very impressive... hey, for those others reading this, the two of us have come a long way - Poppa was right to praise this... I think I would just pop those little malfatties in my mouth like popcorn, as long as you were making them.......

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  20. I made pesto with the ramps I was lucky enough to find last spring. Hoping I can find some more to try with peas and almonds.
    Gorgeous as always Trix!

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  21. Beautiful put together, love the sound of this pesto :)

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  22. I think your pesto will be on my mind all day. Great challenge entry.

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  23. That pesto cream looks amazing! I've never cooked with ramps before, so I'm interested in trying that out. I noticed that you left the pine nuts out of your pesto recipe. Do you use the almonds as a substitute?
    ~Nancy Lewis~

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  24. almonds, peas, ramps AND white asparagus. Lovely! That pesto is so perfect for right now... i read the entire post but seemingly missed the red dusting on the plate! what is that my friend. Paprika?? lmk.

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  25. I love all the fantastic spring flavors in this dish...and I need to try that pesto!

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  26. Those malfatti look so light and fluffy, and I love the sound of the ramp pesto. Beautiful dish with lots of great flavor!

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  27. Gorgeous, darling! :-) I'm really digging the whole green and seasonal veg pesto thing lately. I'm hoping to snatch up some ramps this week!

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  28. I love anything involving pesto and I think its perfect for spring and summer. Also, the pictures of your dishes come out amazing!

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  29. Oh my gosh, I so very nearly went with making an asparagus dish based around using wild garlic pesto for this challenge (and I will definitely be trying the wild garlic and pea combination in future). The malfatti sound absolutely divine!

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