Fiddlehead, ramp, morel, asparagus pizza

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medtran49

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Well, thanks to Aunt Bea posting the link in the ramp thread recently and the e-mail we got from Oregon Mushrooms this a.m., decided to take the plunge and make this Seasonal Ontario Food: Pizza with Asparagus, Fiddleheads, Mushrooms & Ramps

I ordered more morels than we'll need for the pizza but I'm sure we'll find something to do with them :rolleyes: , as well as the extra fiddleheads and ramps since I'm sure there will be more than we need for the pizza. I also ordered some Huitlacoche since it's something we've been wanting to try.

Just waiting for them to start work and send me the delivery notice as to when they'll ship. They have to be overnighted so probably tomorrow or Thursday.
 
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I totally forgot about this. I wanted to try and make it too, but was away for a week. Figured Id try it when I got back ( but forgot) until I saw this thread.

Thanks for the reminder :)

Gotta get my order out (Due to the cool spring we are having, my ramps and asparagus are still looking healthy, so I want to take advantage of that )
 
I just ordered ramps this a.m. from a local farm--I am picking them up tonight, including some for transplanting. Ours are barely up, mostly greens, the bulbs are not really forming yet...morels aren't up, nor is asparagus, but I plan on trying this if the stars align and I can get my hands on everything at the same time.
 
FedEx just stopped by.

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1-1/2 pounds. Think will be stuffing a few of them as you can see how large some are compared to the can.

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1 pound. A certain little kitty cat climbed up on the stool next to the table these are sitting on and had her nose stuck in the green parts. You can already tell they are in the house. I'm tempted to try and plant a few of these but don't know if they'll grow in a pot or not and it's probably too hot here.

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A pound of these too. I think we'll be trying some of these tonight with spring onions Craig brought home again a couple of days ago with romesco sauce and hogfish filets.

I couldn't get a picture of the huitlacoche as it's frozen. They shipped them in a closed plastic bag, with a piece of dry ice in an open plastic bag, then wrapped up in the thick foil paper they ramps are on in the above pic. The bag they are in fogged up as soon as I unwrapped it. Obviously, they got here still frozen.

Great product and service from Oregon Mushrooms as always!
 
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Beautiful produce. And you get hogfish too! :yum:

I have a feeling huitlacoche (corn smut) isn't very photogenic.
 
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I'd go light on the ramps. The risotto that we made for a photo shoot today had ramps in it (3)--totally obliterated the subtle, delicate, woody, foresty, earthy taste of 1 c of morels. Could have used portebellas and had the same flavor.


Or, I would simmer the ramp bulbs in EVOO, remove the bulbs, strain the infused oil and drizzle that on the pizza, make a dipping sauce from the bulbs (bulbs in blender, some of the infused EVOO, a whole organic lemon, quartered, skin and all, whirl), strain and drizzle that on the finished pizza.


I have 2 c of fiddleheads, 3 lb of asparagus, 1/2 lb of ramps, and 1 c of fresh morels to play with....
 
Well, we made it tonight, see pic in dinner thread of 4-30-15. Was it good? Yes. Was it worth it in terms of cost, time, etc? Probably not for us, maybe somebody up north where ingredients are more readily available. I wouldn't special order fiddleheads again to make it. While I will probably order ramps again and will definitely order morels again, think I'll skip the fiddleheads from now on. They are "fiddley" in more than 1 aspect. Cleaning is a chore.

I did take CWS's advice and went lighter on the ramps, only used 4. Could have probably used a few more as the taste was extremely delicate overall. I did lightly sauté the ramps in olive oil and S and P as I was afraid to put them on raw as we grilled pizza in the big green egg at a higher heat (consequently MUCH less time) then what the recipe calls for in the oven. I also very lightly steamed the asparagus before cutting them in in half. We also used fresh moz, which I don't think was used in the recipe since it called for grating and it's almost impossible to grate fresh moz. I also boiled the fiddleheads for longer than 2 minutes since every site I found regarding prepping said to boil or steam for at least 6 minutes up to 10 to get rid of whatever toxin seems to cause people to get sick.
 
I have a slight trypophobia and I don't think that I could even stand to touch a morel mushroom!

Yes I'm weird :w00t2:
 
I have a slight trypophobia and I don't think that I could even stand to touch a morel mushroom!

Yes I'm weird :w00t2:


Now there's a word I've not heard of, BC. Had to look it up. Means fear of holes.
 
Now there's a word I've not heard of, BC. Had to look it up. Means fear of holes.

I've always gotten the willies when seeing things with lots of holes like that, but didn't think much of it. My mom saw something on TV with that "look" and said "I can't stand to look at that, it gives me the creeps" So I looked it up, and low and behold, it's an actual thing!
 
Had no idea. Learn something new here every day!

I have no fear of morels. If you find some, please feel free to send them to me!
 
Well, we made it tonight, see pic in dinner thread of 4-30-15. Was it good? Yes. Was it worth it in terms of cost, time, etc? Probably not for us, maybe somebody up north where ingredients are more readily available. I wouldn't special order fiddleheads again to make it. While I will probably order ramps again and will definitely order morels again, think I'll skip the fiddleheads from now on. They are "fiddley" in more than 1 aspect. Cleaning is a chore.

I did take CWS's advice and went lighter on the ramps, only used 4. Could have probably used a few more as the taste was extremely delicate overall. I did lightly sauté the ramps in olive oil and S and P as I was afraid to put them on raw as we grilled pizza in the big green egg at a higher heat (consequently MUCH less time) then what the recipe calls for in the oven..
I think a light hand on ingredients one finds in the wild is the key. A not pesto-pesto of the fiddleheads or a pesto with the ramp greens would be delish.
 
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That pizza looks amazing. I think ramps must be a regional (back East) thing. I've never seen them, darnit. And I doubt the "fiddleheads" I picked once were the right fern because they tasted like the way my mom's Jergen's hand lotion smelled. But I do have these, courtesy of a good neighbor. And three spears of asparagus in the garden, lol.

img_1420579_0_50d5f57c817e50dc8fd29b8e4dace8d6.jpg
 
I wish I had a neighbor that generous! Morels are so pricey! I have been checking my morel patch daily...nothing, yet. And, I certainly won't be sharing them. Mine! All MINE!
 
Well, we made it tonight, see pic in dinner thread of 4-30-15. Was it good? Yes. Was it worth it in terms of cost, time, etc? Probably not for us, maybe somebody up north where ingredients are more readily available. I wouldn't special order fiddleheads again to make it. While I will probably order ramps again and will definitely order morels again, think I'll skip the fiddleheads from now on. They are "fiddley" in more than 1 aspect. Cleaning is a chore.

I did take CWS's advice and went lighter on the ramps, only used 4. Could have probably used a few more as the taste was extremely delicate overall. I did lightly sauté the ramps in olive oil and S and P as I was afraid to put them on raw as we grilled pizza in the big green egg at a higher heat (consequently MUCH less time) then what the recipe calls for in the oven. I also very lightly steamed the asparagus before cutting them in in half. We also used fresh moz, which I don't think was used in the recipe since it called for grating and it's almost impossible to grate fresh moz. I also boiled the fiddleheads for longer than 2 minutes since every site I found regarding prepping said to boil or steam for at least 6 minutes up to 10 to get rid of whatever toxin seems to cause people to get sick.
They are fiddly to clean. Ostrich ferns are the only ones that are considered edible. I hate cleaning them...the ones we pick have a lot of "paper" on them and although rubbing them with a clean dish towel works, they are still a lot of work to clean. We rinse ours 3 or 4 times and boil for 10 minutes, sauté them and eat them with butter and a bit of lemon juice. I would never order them and have them shipped...it is just that they are available that I eat them...
 
I wish I had a neighbor that generous! Morels are so pricey! I have been checking my morel patch daily...nothing, yet. And, I certainly won't be sharing them. Mine! All MINE!
I don't have a morel patch, but that was exactly what I was thinking.
 
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