Plump pea dumplings

Plump pea dumplings on Flickr by beFOODled.

How much bump can a dumpling clump if a dumpling will be plump?

Plump pea dumplings. Can the name of this recipe be any more adorable? Peanut Butter and Jelly brought these little darlings to our tapas and Transformer party last weekend. Those little bumps contain clumps of a zesty bright green mixture of pea puree, ricotta and lemon zest — what more can a plump dumpling want?

The recipe comes from the 101 Cookbooks cooking blog and you can find it here.

Pasta Primavera

Pasta primavera, originally uploaded by beFOODled.

Spring has literally just sprung in O-town, so there's not a whole lot in season quite yet. But I can't wait until the outdoor markets bring forth the fresh, local produce. In my haste to cook with the seasons this year, I've already made this delicious pasta primavera, adapted from the Shrimp and Artichoke Pasta recipe on Simply Recipes, with nice frozen peas and beans about three times in the past six weeks! Yes, I'm jumping the gun a bit, but I see it as practice until peas and beans are finally in season, and I can make it all over again with the fresh stuff! It's all about building a repertoire, you know ;)

Pasta Primavera
adapted from Simply Recipes

I adapted the recipe in the following way: I added a cup of lima beans and used artichoke pieces from a jar. I also tossed in a couple of handfuls of baby salad leaves (mesclun, spinach and arugula).