Fresh Peas and a Word About Truffle Oil
May 6, 2015, posted by Michelle – This past Sunday at the farmers market I loaded up on a bunch of fresh peas while they are available (the season is just a few short weeks). Behold the sweet, brilliant green beauties:
I concocted a simple salad of peas and new potatoes with chives, dill and mayonnaise that was light and delicious.
Fresh Pea and New Potato Salad
1/2 lb. fresh peas, shelled
5 – 6 small new potatoes, halved
2 tsp. fresh dill, minced
2 tsp. fresh chives, minced
3 tsp mayonnaise (honestly, this is guess – you can add as much or as little mayo as you like)
Boil the potatoes about 15 minutes then add the peas and continue to boil together for another 5 – 7 minutes or until the peas are just tender. Strain in a colander and then transfer the peas and potatoes to a mixing bowl. Allow to cool a bit (15 minutes or so). Mix in the mayo and herbs and add salt and pepper to taste.
Now about apparently evil and disgusting truffle oil… My significant other (when I mention him from now on I’ll refer to him as Le Monsieur) came home from a business trip to Italy with several packages of truffle flavored pasta that, unfortunately, didn’t have much of a truffle taste. I thought maybe adding a little truffle oil would bring out the truffle flavor of the pasta. I had never used truffle oil before and so I did a little research to find out about it. Wow. It seems like everyone from Martha Stewart to Anthony Bourdain HATES and VILIFIES truffle oil. The reason is because 99% of commercially produced truffle oil has no truffles in it and chemically reproduces a one dimensional, overbearing truffle-like taste. The ingredients of this synthetic truffle oil include phrasing like “truffle essence” or “truffle aroma”. Read THIS ARTICLE to find out more about truffles, truffle oil and marketing manipulation. You can decide for yourself if truffle oil is a travesty or not.
