Peas in Everything
2026.05.10
Food from the past couple weeks -
From Hailee Catalano’s cookbook, By Heart, this mushy pea pasta salad was essentially spring in a bowl. The dressing is composed of thawed frozen peas blended with olive oil, which is added to thinly shaved fennel and red onion, chopped herbs (dill, mint, and parsley), diced olives and feta, the zest and juice of one lemon, and of course, a small noodle. The ratio of veggies to pasta was perfect, and it was a new flavour profile for pasta salad that I had yet to try. We ate this alongside some grilled chicken breasts for a simple weeknight dinner.
My attempt at reconstructing the 2010 classic side of asparagus, prosciutto, and goat cheese. This recipe didn’t turn out exactly the way I’d hoped, but it still looked and tasted pretty good. I blended goat cheese with lemon zest and juice, and a clove of garlic, but it ended up a bit too runny (this happens to me a lot when I blend goat-based dairy, so I’ll have to try again using a different method!). On top of my runny goat cheese, I added asparagus that I charred in a cast-iron pan, prosciutto that I crisped in the same pan, as well as a drizzle of hot honey. I think this tasted pretty good, but it still needs a little bit of work!
Loosely following a recipe from NYT Cooking, this gnocchi was a really simple and quick weeknight dinner that felt fresh and light! While the recipe calls for crisping packaged gnocchi in a pan with oil, I followed some suggestions in the comments to air-fry it instead, and I’m thankful I did. I find that when I pan-fry gnocchi, it can become quite dense and overly oily, but air-frying gave it a great texture since it dried out the outside while keeping the inside fluffy. Once the gnocchi is done frying, you can add it directly to a mixture of browned sausage, peas, mustard, water, and parmesan. Adding fresh mint at the end brought a wonderful cooling contrast to the otherwise savoury dish. I made this in about 20 minutes — an easy, quick dinner we had before rushing to the cinema to see a movie.
In a cast iron pan, I browned pork tenderloin on all sides, then transferred it to the oven to finish cooking. In the same pan I browned the pork in, I added diced shallot to sauté slightly, then deglazed with red wine vinegar and whole-grain mustard. I added cold butter to the pan slowly, then thinned out the sauce with a bit of water until I got the consistency I wanted. I took inspiration from a picture my friend Chris sent me of his dinner, along with a couple of loose instructions to follow. My salad on the side was dressed with a whole-grain mustard vinaigrette (more mustard!), with added peas and shaved parmesan. Because we always need a carb, I toasted some sourdough in the oven and rubbed a garlic clove on it. A delicious dinner!
For lunch yesterday, I wanted to use up our leftover ingredients in the fridge, so I made a couscous salad with mint, parsley, feta, thawed frozen peas, and the remaining mustard vinaigrette. To add a bit more protein to the meal, I made spiced beef meatballs with cumin, coriander, garlic powder, egg, and panko, then put those in the oven to roast. On the side, I sliced the few grape tomatoes we had left in the fridge and topped them with flaky salt.
