Shelling peas

[jadelennox]

Does anyone have any tips for shelling peas? Now that it's early summer where I live, we have a few weeks of shelling peas available in the farmers' markets. I can't resist them, and you can only get them for a few weeks a year here, but shelling them by hand is a massive pain trigger. You can't get fresh english peas pre-shelled anywhere that I've ever seen, and I like fresh miles more than frozen.

(Though the improvised and delicious-if-pain-inducing dinner was worth sharing, because if you use frozen peas, the only part I can't figure out how to make easy is the onion chopping. I don't think it would work diary-free, though I made it with gluten-free pasta and it was lovely.)

• 8 oz pasta of your choice
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 3 cloves of garlic. pre-chopped should work, or garlic scapes which are easier to chop than garlic.
• 1 cup tomato puree
• spices to taste. We used dill, thyme, and tarragon because it's what I had growing out the kitchen window, but other combos would work.
• Optionally, half a chopped yellow or red pepper. (I had one I'd chopped and frozen last summer so it was trivial; I don't know why you can't buy frozen peppers because they freeze beautifully)
• a cup of frozen peas, or fresh ones you get someone else to shell

1. Put on the pasta to cook.
2. Heat some oil in a pan
3. Sautee the onions and garlic
4. While they cook, put on the peas to boil
5. When the onions are transluscent, add the peppers to the onion and garlic
6. After a few minutes, add the tomato sauce
7. By this point, your peas should be tender. Drain them, and you can use the same pot to warm the cream. (I have read that warming cream before adding it to tomatoes is how you keep it from curdling; in any case it worked this time.)
8. Add any chopped herbs to the cream as it warms.
9. When the cream is warm, add to the tomato and veggie mixture
10. add the peas.
11. Salt to taste, pour over the pasta.

Comments

[shannnon_foraker]

If you have the funds/something nice to give them, you could try to hire *someone* local, like a kid, maybe?