Tag: italian food

I’m a Sucker for Pea Shoots – Food in Malta

M's Adventures
The shrimp and scallop agnoletti.

As the year draws to a close and the days are finally getting longer here in Rome, I am thinking about fresh snap peas and pea shoots. I love fresh peas and I look forward to them. But, I’m also a sucker for pea shoots. Perhaps partly because they look so artistic. Like edible dancing decorations.

While visiting Malta, we went on a traditional food tour which was interesting. The variety of foods in Malta is as mixed as their culture so we tried Japanese, Italian, Maltese, and fusion (well, it was all sort of fusion).

Soup.

But, then one evening, we found a really delicious restaurant. It is called Grana Bistro and woah was it yummy. I only include a few photos but we had soup, spaghetti alla vongole, salt baked fish, grilled vegetables, bread, and. those amazing scallop and shrimp agnoletti (big ravioli). There were lots of pea shoots used on the various dishes.

Spaghetti alla vongole.

I ate them too.

Eating Monk’s Beard

M's Adventures

In March, I saw clumps of grass being sold at the markets. I asked what it was and was told, “agretti” — in English, this vegetable is called Salsola Soda or Opposite-Leaved Saltwort (although I don’t think it’s a common thing to eat in English speaking countries so the name may not be so important). In Italian, the fun name is Monk’s beard.

I asked the vegetable seller how to cook it and she said, to cook it in salted water for ten minutes, dress with olive oil and lemon juice, a bit of salt and pepper, and eat. Some recipes say to add garlic so I may do that. I like this recipe because I like the idea of cooking it with spaghetti so that the shapes are similar. First I tried it without any flavorings so I can see what it tastes like.

I over cooked the pasta… I was too busy taking photos!

For those who live in the U.S. and want to grow Italian vegetables, this site also provides some information on them. This vegetable is supposedly becoming more popular with chefs. Other season vegetables right now are wild asparagus and artichokes. I even saw some sunchokes, Jerusalem artichokes, at the market the other day.

While the appearance is a bit like chives, it tastes more like… grass, and has a nice slippery texture. I think this would be a very healthy vegetable and it could be fun as a dish by itself. I made it with spaghetti so that the shapes matched. Of course, I put cheese on it.