How to Eat a Waste-Free Lunch

After spending a week and a half at my cottage, and therefore not tending my garden, I arrived home to discover something very important. I am astonishingly inept at vegetable gardening. I have planted things too close together, and now there is a lot of crowding. I didn't realize how tall some of the plants would get and I have staked them inadequately. I didn't give enough space to the beets, so I'll probably get only a handful of them. I have too many bean plants and I put them around the perimeter of the garden so that they now overshadow everything underneath. I let the bugs eat too much of my swiss chard. The tomato plants are unhappy and the spinach appears to be on the verge of giving up entirely.

All is not lost, however. The garden, affectionately dubbed "the coffin" by my husband due to it's rather grave-like shape, is offering up some delights. I got a (small) harvest of different varieties of peas which we are going to eat for dinner. My lettuce is amazingly robust and plentiful and I don't think I'll have to buy any for weeks. The radishes are holding their own and should be ready pretty soon. I have enough mint to make juleps for all the ladies on my street and I have enough thyme that I will probably be able to dry some for winter. Once the beans are ready for harvesting, we'll be eating them fresh at every meal and then no doubt pickling them as well.

I adore peas and the season is so fleeting that I never get more than one or two meals with them. I look forward to making this very simple pea and prosciutto dish every year. Today I'm back at the cottage with the peas, but with no prosciutto in sight, so I decided to substitute bacon. I cooked the bacon in a frying pan, drained it and wiped out the pan and then cooked the peas in the same pan. I normally just use shelled peas, but this year I added the sugar snap and snow peas from my garden. I always put this over pasta, but you can have it as a side dish as well.

Peas with Prosciutto

2 tbsp olive oil 1 cup shelled peas handful of sugar snap or snow peas 2 very thin slices of prosciutto enough cooked pasta for 2 people, orichiette is good here Salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a frying pan and add peas, stirring to coat peas with oil. Add 1/4 cup or so of water. Cover and cook for a few minutes, until peas are tender. Do not overcook them.

2. Meanwhile roughly chop the sliced prosciutto. When peas are cooked stir in prosciutto. Season with salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese. Stir in pasta and serve immediately.

Difficulty Level: Easy