Spring Pea Cream Sauce

Spring pea cream sauce is a delicate and flavorful creation. Sweet, tender peas are blended with rich cream to create a velvety smooth sauce that's bursting with springtime freshness. This versatile sauce can be enjoyed with pasta, grilled fish, or as a delightful topping for crostini.

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Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegetarian

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 15

Total Time: 20

Servings: cups

Calories: 426kcal

Author: Michelle

Ingredients

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon flour
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup Parmesan
1 cup shelled peas blanched
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Blanch your peas first – unless you’re using frozen peas that are already cooked. Heat water to boiling and salt it liberally (3 to 4 cups of water and a tablespoon of salt). Add your shelled peas, and boil for a brief moment – no more than 60-90 seconds.
Use a slotted spoon or a spider to remove the peas and place them into a bowl of ice water. Stop cooking immediately so they stay a beautiful bright green color and don’t get mushy and gross.
For your sauce, use a nonstick pan, and add the butter. Once the butter is melted (at medium heat), add the flour and stir well. Add the garlic after a minute or so, and saute for just another minute, stirring periodically.
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon flour, 2 cloves garlic
Add the milk slowly, whisking constantly as you do so to ensure that you don’t end up with any unsightly lumps.Turn the heat down to medium low, as you don’t want to truly boil the milk and burn it or worse. thicken gently over the next three to four minutes.
1 1/2 cups milk
Add your cheese, and do it in batches so that you don’t get a mass of lumpy cheese in the midst of your beautiful sauce. Once it’s incorporated and smooth, add a bit more and so on. Add a pinch of salt and some pepper, adjusting to get it to the taste you want.
1/2 cup Parmesan, salt and pepper
Finally, add the peas and stir to combine. The sauce may start to get a little thick at this point, but it’s okay. This is why we save our pasta water. Add a half cup or so to your sauce and pasta and toss it together until the sauce is the consistency you prefer – thicker or thinner.
1 cup shelled peas
Serve it immediately. Cream sauces aren’t ones you want to let cool off before serving.

Equipment

Non-Stick 8x8 Pan

Balloon Whisk

Measuring Spoons and Cups

Notes

For a true bechamel (cream-based mother sauce), you’d want to do equal amounts of butter and flour to make the roux to thicken the sauce. Because I don’t want this cream sauce very thick but still want the richness that butter gives it, I decreased the amount of flour I’d usually use.)
The bowl of ice water should be full of ice in it. This is to make sure the peas don't get mushy and gross.
Never ever dump out your pasta water before you’ve coated your pasta with sauce.
If you have extra, you can absolutely save it and rethin and heat it with the pasta water trick again the next time you’re eating pasta.
For more tips and tricks, be sure to read the full article above.

Nutrition

This site uses an online source to provide nutrition estimates as a courtesy. If you need exact values, please calculate yourself.