Chef Lidia Bastianich uses food to keep her five grandchildren in the present, with their feet on the ground. She also uses it to teach the new brood about the generations that came before. She is careful to choose ingredients that are easy to love. Now, in the spring, for instance, she picks sweet early peas to cook with her grandchildren. Here are her tips for sharing the pleasure of peas with your grandchildren.
• PICK A PEA: Allow the children to help shop for the peas and, back in the kitchen, to hold the peapods and run their fingers lightly over the shell. The very smallest peas are so sweet that they can eat them raw, right from the shell. The larger ones need to be cooked.
• HAVE A SHELL GAME: Sit around the table shelling the peas, talking and making a game of eating the tiniest and sweetest of the peas. Teach the children to put the larger peas into a bowl.
• COOK OFF: Show the children how to boil the peas and cool them in a colander, which you then run under cold water to make them tender and preserve their color.
• PASTA PERFECT: Make a simple pasta and fresh peas with sage, allowing the children to help prepare whatever they can. In the following recipe, the children can pick the sage leaves, salt the pasta water, and stir the peas while they sauté. They can also help add cheese, taste for seasoning, and toss the pasta.
Continue to the recipe: Lidia's Easy Spring Pea Pasta
Experience more of Bastianich's passion for Italian cooking at lidiasItaly.com.
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