pasta, peas, lardons, chèvre

Spring is a slow business. Maybe it’s because we’re so eager for it; maybe it’s that spring days start to appear when winter hasn’t quite left for good yet. Spring is fickle, but spring appears to have come to Paris.

I generally don’t have the time or inclination to go for long and meandering walks in my adopted city, but today, circumstances landed me in the city center, and, given the sunshine, I decided to walk. From Luxembourg, I had an errand to run at Montparnasse, and from Montparnasse, I had to go to Montmartre… but I had time, and the sun was shining, so I decided to walk.

And walk I did. I walk frequently as a mode of transportation, but this was vacation-style meandering. I ducked into stores, just for the sake of looking. I paused to examine the buds on trees, just about ready to bloom. I did the culinary equivalent of eavesdropping, glancing sideways at the plates of cheese and salad that a couple was sharing on the terrace of les Deux Magots. I crossed the footbridge over the Seine in front of the Musée d’Orsay and peered at paintings of Paris for sale.

I know that it’s still early March; I know that spring isn’t fully here yet. It’s easy to tell from the markets, which are still selling root vegetables and cabbage, even though supermarkets have begun importing berries from Spain. I’m still making this pasta with frozen peas, but soon they’ll be fresh, and I’ll be eating half of them straight out of the pods as I shell them. Goat cheese is a springtime ingredient as well, I learned a few years ago from a cheesemonger, but here it’s available all year long and is inexpensive… and paired with tiny green peas, it reminds me that spring isn’t far off.

Pasta with Peas, Goat Cheese and Lardons

100 grams (3.5 ounces) lardons or bacon cut into small pieces
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp. salt
150 g. (5.3 ounces) uncooked pasta
150 g. (1 cup) frozen peas
2 Tbsp. crème fraiche or sour cream
60 g. (2 ounces) goat cheese

Place the lardons or bacon in a cold skillet and add about a quarter-inch of water, just to cover the bottom of the pan. Slowly heat over a medium flame until the bacon has rendered its fat and begins to turn golden. Remove the bacon, leaving whatever fat is still in the skillet. (My bacon is lean; if yours renders too much fat, by all means, remove a little bit. But be sure to leave some… you’ll need it for the onions.)

Speaking of which, add them now, along with the salt. Reduce the heat to medium-low, stir, cover, and walk away. In 15 minutes, come back and stir. Add water if needed to scrape up the lovely browned bits on the bottom, then turn the heat up to high and stir frequently, until the onions are golden brown and sweet.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the pasta. Throw the frozen peas in the skillet with the onions and add the bacon back in. When the pasta has cooked, reserve a half-cup of cooking water and add the pasta, the crème fraiche and the goat cheese to the pan. Use the cooking water to thin the sauce until it reaches a consistency you like. Serve with fresh black pepper (and parmesan, if you’re into cheese.)