Chefs are unintentionally funny sometimes. About a week ago, Chef Ben walks up to me, looks around to see that we are alone, and says, "Hey! I think I just got a line on some ramps. A buddy of mine told me where to find them growing wild". I kind of laughed to myself thinking; A. Can't we just buy them? B. Is this what chefs talk about over beers? Turns out that we can buy them for around $15/lb. Silly me! A few days later he came to me and excitedly whispered, "I found them. There are so many"! He began laughing before he even finished the sentence. He laughed like a criminal who just got away with a crime. I nodded and laughed along with him while racking my brain to figure out what on earth he was talking about. Then I remembered...he was using his "this is on the down low" voice, and I quickly connected the dots. For a just a second, I thought I was buying a bag of weed. It was all very cloak and dagger.
Anyway, chef hit the jackpot (600lbs x $15 = $9000 in ramps!) thanks to his friend who moved away and decided to pass this little chef nugget on. Since the harvest, we have seen our chef go ramp wild...in a very good way.
Today he made a ramp puree, put it into the pasta dough for ravioli, stuffed the rav with goat cheese, mascarpone, and porcini powder, laid it over some butter and topped it with goat cheese and...you guessed it...pickled ramps. The pickled ramps made it pop in the best way.
Hope you enjoy!