Delicate Pea-Pod Broth

As day follows night, our first dinner following the arrival of peas in the farmers’ market is ... peas. Lots of them. Usually cooked with bacon, spring onions, lettuce and butter in a manner nowadays called à la française (the old-fashioned recipe for petits pois à la française is somewhat different), and eaten with a spoon and a slice or two of buttered grilled bread.This year followed the pattern: peas and grilled bread, with the summer’s first local strawberries for dessert. One of the great annual rituals.After Jackie and I shelled the peas, I did something I do occasionally – rarely more than once or twice a season: I salvaged the emptied pods and made a light broth for cooking, say, risotto. (As best I recall, I picked up the notion of this economical practice from a late-1970s cookbook by the French chefs Jean and Pierre Troisgros.) Over time, I’ve tried several methods, including the use of a pressure cooker, and this year the result was good enough to share.You will need a food mill and a food processor (though the latter could be replaced by a knife and a lot of patience). You will also need modest expectations: This is a lightly flavored broth perfect for risotto, to which it imparts a gentle but palpable pea flavor and does not mask the flavor of the rice. And if there is one thing you should be able to taste in a risotto it is rice. You’ll find other uses for it too, and it freezes well.I strongly recommend the addition of a little piece of dried kombu seaweed: It enhances the pea flavor without making the broth taste oceanic.As to that risotto, make it in the usual way, employing warmed, salted pea-pod broth and adding fresh peas (a handful? a cup? two cups? – as many as you like, up to a point) two to five minutes before the rice is done, depending on the age and size of the peas. In fact, really tiny super-fresh ones can go in just as you take the risotto off the heat and let it stand for a couple of minutes before beating in butter and parmesan.