There's no shortage of ways to use fresh ramps, and this ramp pasta might be the most delicious and easy option! Once harvested you can sautee fresh ramps with a few simple ingredients to make an easy yet flavorful sauce in less than 20 minutes. Pair it with a long, thin pasta like spaghetti or bucatini for a pleasing and filling spin on aglio e olio.
🌟 Why You’ll Love This Ramp Pasta
🧾 Ingredients in This Recipe
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
👩🍳 How to Make Ramp Pasta
⭐️ Pro Tip ⭐️
Pasta water is your secret to loosening your sauce to the exact consistency that you want. It is also salted, so helps season your sauce.
I love to serve this with a ramp garlicky bread that I make by broiling sliced sourdough topped with ramp butter.
🏆 Tips for Finding Ramps
This recipe uses whole ramps because I was able to get a large bunch of ramps from my local farmers' market with the bulb intact. I'd say your best bet is to try to find them at the farmers' market, but go early because ramps are highly sought after due to their short seasonal availability.
If you're foraging them, it's much more sustainable to trim them at top of the bulb and only use the leaves. Try to leave at least one leaf per ramp. Removing the entire bulb means the ramps cannot regrow in that spot. If you grow your own at home, of course, you can use the entire ramp.
Ramp Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb. spaghetti or bucatini
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes up to 2 teaspoons
- 10 ramps or 30-40 leaves, bulbs sliced lengthwise
- salt
- 1 cup parmesan optional*
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to boil.
- In the meantime, add the oil to a pan over medium-high heat. Add the ramps and cook until translucent and just begins to golden, 2-5 minutes, adding the red pepper flakes half way through. Turn off the heat.
- Cook the pasta until just under al dente. It should be tender, but not completely cooked. Strain and reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
- Add ½ cup of the pasta water to the cooled ramps and reduce over high heat by half. The oil should be at room temperature before adding the water.
- Add the pasta and stir as it cooks. Add a little more pasta water a bit at a time until the pasta is cooked and the water is absorbed, ~30 seconds. Season with salt, mix in the parmesan if you are using it, and serve.
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