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17 Fresh Pea Recipes for Springtime and Beyond

Updated on February 16, 2024

These flavorful dishes will have everyone digging in—and coming back for seconds.

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Photo: Matt Armendariz

Our Best Ideas for Fresh Peas

Sure, you can grab a bag from the freezer section of the grocery store year-round—there are plenty of great recipes that call for frozen peas. But now is the time to snap up fresh peas, when they’re at their plumpest and sweetest. Eat fresh peas as soon as you can after harvesting; the longer they sit in the fridge, the more their sugars convert to starches. They’re still good this way, but they will taste less like, well, like sweet, fresh peas! In addition, pea shoots and tendrils can be treated like peas and tossed in along with whatever you’re making, and sugar snaps and snow peas make excellent partners, too. Looking for a few easy-peasy recipes to keep in your back pocket? You're in the right place. We've rounded up our best, starting with this soup that is pure, green freshness boosted with mint and chives. Best of all, the whole thing comes together in under 15 minutes, and is as elegant as it is simple.

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Photo: Yunhee Kim ©

Risotto Bianco with Enoki and Fresh Peas

We won’t claim—outright, at least—to have improved upon that classic Italian dish, risi e bisi, or rice and peas. But threads of crispy enoki mushrooms here and there take the umami combination to a new and very irresistible place.

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Photo: Ryan Dausch

Spring Pea and Ricotta Crostini with Fava Beans

Anne Burrell assembles wonderful, simple things that add up to a delightful summer appetizer that will make you feel like you’re dining on a hilltop in Piedmont.

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Ricotta Gnudi and Butter Sauce with English Peas and Mushrooms

Making fresh pasta definitely brings a little intimidation factor to the picture, and for some, even more so if it’s a pasta you might not be familiar with. But gnudi are so user-friendly, you should truly feel the opposite way. Like gnocchi that get their body from ricotta rather than potato (and a corresponding lightness and creaminess to boot), this mixture is stirred together and then formed into balls ahead of time, so that on game-day, you just have to make the sauce. The result is so special, and so worth it.

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