Orecchiette with Peas

Orecchiette with Peas

Last night, I decided to make orecchiette with peas. Although Whole Foods didn’t follow my instructions to keep whole wheat orecchiette available (apparently they haven’t started reading my blog yet!), this is one of Jon’s favorite dishes and comes from the cookbook Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home.

LOTS of Onions

Really, this dish should actually be called orecchiette with onions because of the extreme quantity of onions used…4 large ones! I started off by thinly slicing up the onions. My eyes were definitely watering by the third onion. After they were all sliced, they went into a big pan with olive oil for sauteing.

Onions Cooking Down

At this point, Jon was crying a little bit from the onion fumes and even the cats were blinking back tears! I like to let the onions cook down a lot and start to caramelize, adding a little bit of salt as they continue to cook.

Onions and Peas

While the orecchiette was cooking, I defrosted the peas and added them to the onions. I also decided to add a little bit of white wine to deglaze the pan along with lots of freshly ground pepper.

Finally, the pasta was done! I added the orecchiette into the onion and pea mixture, along with a good amount of the pasta cooking water to make a sauce. After combining everything together, it was ready to serve. Yum!

Orecchiette with Peas