This beautiful dish is a lesson in merging seasonal ingredients. Ramps, the green foraged onion and garlic weed that only bursts from fertile Spring soil, meets happily with fennel and it's fragrant, sweet pollen only to share the stage with a real harbinger of Spring on the East Coast- soft shell crabs. Chef Damon Wise was a long time star in the Colicchio restaurant empire and since the fall of '11 he has rejuvenated The Monkey Bar and is reportedly working on his own neighborhood restaurant. This flavorful recipe is clearly a product of a thoughtful, super busy and well-organized Executive Chef. You can make many of the components in advance, cooking and cleaning in stages, with a only last minute cooking of the shellfish and the pasta. It's as well suited for restaurant service as it is for a dinner party. Wise ways, indeed.
Ingredients
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 6 ramps, tops removed
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 10 plum tomatoes, peeled and seeded
- 12 thyme leaves
- Salt and pepper
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 fennel bulb, cut into wedges
- 8 whole ramps
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon toasted fennel seeds
- 1 lb 6 oz ( 600 grams) Tipo “00 farina” Italian flour
- 6 large free-range or organic eggs or 12 yolks
- 2 tablespoons chopped fennel fronds
- ¼ teaspoon fennel pollen
- 6 soft shell crabs
- Extra virgin olive oil
- a pinch of fennel seed
- Fennel fronds
- Raw chiffonade of ramp tops
Instructions
In extra virgin olive oil, sweat the garlic and ramps over medium heat in a low-sided saucepan. Add plum tomatoes and cook down until dry and rich. Finish with extra virgin olive oil, thyme leaves and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Add extra virgin olive oil to a sauté pan that has been gently heated. Add fennel wedges, ramps, salt and pepper and cook until beautifully caramelized and tender. Finish with toasted fennels seeds. Remove from pan, set aside.
Combine the flour and eggs. Work the dough until it is fully combined and rest the dough for 20 minutes. Roll out the dough halfway in a pasta machine and fold in the fennel fronds and pollen in and continue rolling to the thinnest setting. Cut four 5" x 5" squares and set aside.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, add the extra virgin olive oil and butter until it foams. Add 6 soft shell crabs and sauté until crispy then flip them using a spatula. Add a pinch of fennel seed and baste until hot throughout. Add the fennel and ramps to bring to temperature. Swirl the pan. Set aside. Add the pasta in the boiling water and cook until tender . Remove the pasta from the water; toss with extra virgin olive oil and set aside.
Working quickly, heat 4 large plates. Spoon some of the sauce in the center of each plate. Wrap 1 crab and roasted ramps in each pasta sheet, place on top of the sauce. Arrange the roasted fennel and another half of a soft shell around the plate. Garnish with the fennel fronds, chiffonade of raw ramp tops and extra virgin olive oil.
Notes
It's hard to make this dish without ramps. In some recipes you can " fake it " and substitute ramps with fresh, mild Texas scallions and add a roasted clove of garlic for every three ramps in the recipe. Ramps are the star here and it's paired with Springtime soft shell crabs, but great recipes can take the improvisation and it's a great recipe. The fennel pollen is available on-line from Northern California farms but it can be omitted if necessary.