What the Heck is a Ramp?

A ramp is a wild leek.  According to Time Magazine, ramps are the new arugula.  Obviously I am always on the cutting edge of a trend, what with my unwavering love of Wham! and my genuine sadness that A-Ha is breaking up, so yesterday I chopped up some ramps and gave them a try.

Kim gave me some great ideas for recipes to try with ramps.  I decided to try her pasta suggestion first, mostly because it involved bacon.  I have all sorts of catching up to do when it comes to bacon.  In second grade, I read "Charlotte's Web" and gave up eating pigs until I was 25.  It's still one of my favorite books with *spoiler alert* one of the saddest death scenes of all time.  Anyway, I don't regret my Wilbur-related pork boycott, but bacon sure is delicious, so I cooked two slices of it, chopped it up and browned the chopped ramps in the bacon grease.  Then, I added this to some already made cheese tortellini and sprinkled it with Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

The verdict?  Kind of meh.  I think I screwed up with the bacon grease.  It was a little too much on the pasta. If I made it again, I'd probably keep the bacon separate, brown the ramps in butter and then combine them.  The ramps were delicious, though.  I liked them raw, a mild combination of green onion and garlic.  Kim also suggested making pesto with the ramps, so that's on the agenda for this evening.  I have never undertaken a pesto sauce before, so keep your fingers crossed- those food processor blades can be deadly when you're a klutz.