FAVORITE GREEN PEA SMASH

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 cups shelled green peas (this is from about 2 pounds of peas in their pods)

¼ cup water, or more as needed

4 to 5 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced

½ cup chopped fresh mint leaves

Sea salt and plenty of freshly grated black pepper

Cheese of your choice: You can use burrata or mozzarella, fresh goat’s milk cheese, ricotta or grated hard cheese

Instructions:

Warm a large skillet set over medium heat on the stovetop.

Add the olive oil and the butter and cook until the butter starts to melt. Add the peas, and stir to coat them with the oil-butter mixture. Add the water and raise the heat to medium-high. When the liquid gently bubbles and starts to reduce, add the onions.

Cook for 4 to 5 minutes more, stirring, until the peas soften. Lower the heat back to medium, add the mint leaves and season with salt and pepper.

Remove from heat and, using a potato masher or back of a large spoon, mash the peas into a coarse mixture. Or, using an immersion blender, puree the peas into a smooth spread.

Now you have several options:

Spoon the pea smash into individual bowls and top with the cheese of your choice, and serve.

Spoon the whole thing into a bowl, mix well in a soft (ricotta or fresh goat’s milk) cheese and use as a dip/spread with crackers or crudites.

Grate a hard cheese into the pea smash, or mix a soft cheese into the smash, then spread the smash on the bottoms of individual dinner plates and top with a piece of cooked salmon fillet or slices of prosciutto.

Toast thick slices of crusty bread, spread the pea smash atop, crown with cheese of your choice.

(Any of the above options serves 4)