Spaghetti and Ramps

A perfect combination

It’s that time of year again: like a forager’s McRib, ramps are back. If you’re the type to follow along dutifully with every seasonal food trend, your feeds and greenmarkets have been stuffed like a springtime ballotine with those wild green alliums. They’re now everywhere, on every menu and commanding frenzied lines for a $5 bunch, and they’ll disappear just as quickly in a few weeks, preparing for next year’s Bon Appetit-heads.

If you (somewhat mercifully?) don’t know what ramps are, they’re also called wild leeks: leafy green shoots in the allium family (onions, garlic, scallions, etc.) that can only be foraged in temperate climates during a very brief season, hence their exclusivity. Are they worth the hype? I posed the question as a poll on Instagram last weekend, and I have to concur with the majority of respondents that their actual appeal is somewhere in the middle: a special, fleeting moment at the farmer’s market that signifies the arrival of spring, and a nice, garlicky addition to your plate, but not quite as miraculous as ramp mania would have you believe.

That being said, I still find them impossible to avoid during their brief window of availability. The trick with ramps is to cook and adorn them very simply: grilled, gently fried in oil, mixed into butter or aioli, or just raw, as an herbal garnish. One popular use of ramps that I don’t love is pesto; to me, that should be saved for the far superior basil, whose peak season is just around the corner. But if you’re looking to include ramps in a pasta dish, this recipe is a simple and extremely delicious way to do it.