It was one of those days. I had run all over town doing errands when suddenly it was 5 o’clock and I remembered that the fridge was uncharacteristically empty. I got home, ran up the stairs, ran into the kitchen slightly panicked (the Mom must be fed) and saw that the Farmers Market Fairy had come. Really. That’s what Linda calls herself. And in that moment I could have kissed her. For years I had to be in the studio at KCRW every Wednesday morning for interviews so that meant I missed the Santa Monica market every week. Until Linda came into my life and started shopping for me. Now she’s my biggest luxury. Sitting on my counter were fresh strawberries, kumquats, spigariello, spinach, green garlic, CHERRIES!, Roan Mills bread and peas. Shelled peas, no less. I had some of my favorite pepper bacon in the freezer so my mind did this. “I can make a pea sauté with bacon, toast some bread, rub it with garlic and slather it with some lemon quark I have and top it with the pea sauté.” Quark is a fresh cream cheese, that’s lighter and smoother than the cream cheese you know. I buy it from Spring Hill Jersey Cheese from Petaluma. They sell at the Santa Monica and Pico-Cloverfield markets. You can substitute a creamy goat cheese or any luscious cheese that will help the peas stick to the toast. Once I started cooking I noticed the peas were a little starchy so I added a bit of sugar to the really hot pan so it caramelized then I scraped it into the peas. Oh, and they look the way they do because I sauté peas instead of steaming or boiling them. It’s so fun to watch them pop. Simple, fast and so good.
yum!