The measure of success — or at least my success — in the Pasta Primavera challenge is to use at some food grown from the garden, along with homemade pasta. Whether I purchase premium dried pasta or make my own is still up in the air: the dried stuff can be better than fresh, depending on the use so I need to make a move either way. In recent days though, I have made some minor steps in the direction of success.

The success in this case is the food that’s begun to sprout. While watering what we’re now calling “Garden A”, I noticed on one of our taller pea plants, where one of the flowers had bee was a small green protrusion. Closer inspection lead me to realise it was a pea pod! I couldn’t recall what type of peas we’d planted, but it seems that we’d planted snow peas. Not the ideal addition to Pasta Primavera but I’ll take what I can get — besides, the taste will be good once they’re cut up.

Investigation a couple of days later shows around ten of the pods appearing. Since I only intend to make one or two dishes, this ought to be more than enough. However, it also seems that our broad beans are beginning to bear fruit as well! If they grow quickly enough, I’ll be able to use broad beans in the Pasta Primavera challenge as well.

This bodes very well! However, the only real problem is that the things I’m growing technically don’t really belong in a Pasta Primavera. Still, I’ll take what I can get. Now it’s time to hunt down a suitable recipe. Challengeers: it may be time to organise a cook-off date soon!