Petits Pois à la Française

The youngest peas braised gently in butter with shredded lettuce, tiny spring onions, and a little stock until soft, sweet, and glistening

Origin: France

From the journey of Pea.

Petits pois à la française is the definitive French statement of the green pea, and it carries the memory of one of the strangest episodes in culinary history. In January 1660 a courtier brought a basket of fresh green peas, carried up from Italy, to the table of Louis XIV, and the court of Versailles was gripped by a craze for petits pois unlike anything ever recorded for a single vegetable. Madame de Maintenon wrote of great ladies who, having dined and dined well, would eat peas in their bedchambers before sleep, calling the obsession 'a fashion, a fury'. The king's gardener, Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, was set to forcing peas under glass in the Potager du Roi, the royal kitchen garden, to keep the sovereign supplied out of season. From that courtly frenzy the fresh garden pea entered the canon of French refinement, and petits pois à la française is its classic form. The technique is the opposite of the modern instinct to keep peas bright and barely cooked: here the youngest, sweetest peas are braised slowly in butter with shredded lettuce, tiny pearl or spring onions, a little sugar, and just enough stock or water, until they are completely soft, sweet, and bathed in a glossy, buttery, faintly sweet liquor. The lettuce melts almost to nothing, lending its own delicate sweetness, and a final swirl of butter (sometimes worked with a little flour, a beurre manié) thickens the juices to a sauce. It is at once humble and aristocratic, a side dish fit for a king's table that asks for nothing more than good butter, fresh peas, and a gentle hand.

Ingredients

Vegetables

  • 600 g fresh or frozen petits pois (young green peas)
  • 1 piece Little Gem or butterhead lettuce, shredded
  • 12 piece small pearl onions or spring onions, peeled or trimmed

Braise

  • 60 g butter
  • 150 ml light chicken or vegetable stock (or water)
  • 1 tsp caster sugar

Finishing

  • 1 tbsp plain flour (for a beurre manié, optional)

Seasoning

  • 0.75 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 0.25 tsp freshly ground white pepper

Method

  1. Melt 40 g of the butter in a wide pan over a medium-low heat. Add the pearl or spring onions and cook gently for 5 minutes, without colouring, until they begin to soften.
  2. Add the peas, the shredded lettuce, the sugar, salt, and white pepper, and pour in the stock. Stir, bring to a gentle simmer, and cover.
  3. Braise gently, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes (less for frozen peas, until tender; longer for fresh), until the peas and onions are completely soft and sweet and most of the liquid has reduced to a few glossy spoonfuls.
  4. If you would like the liquor thickened to a sauce, mash the remaining 20 g butter with the flour to a paste (beurre manié) and stir small pieces of it into the simmering juices until lightly thickened and glossy. Otherwise simply swirl in the last of the butter.
  5. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then turn into a warm dish and serve at once.

Notes

Frozen petits pois are excellent here and were practically invented for this dish; add them slightly later than fresh peas as they need less time. Some cooks add a little chopped flat-leaf parsley or a few lardons of bacon at the start. The dish can be made ahead and gently reheated.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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