Blistered Snap Peas with Mint

After all of my anticipation of our first snap peas of the spring, I have to say that this was not my favorite sugar snap pea recipe.  I was really bummed.  I was so excited for this dish (and for the appearance of sugar snaps at the farmers' market) and it just turned out to be ok.  And when you are expecting awesome things, ok just doesn't cut it.  Blistering the snap peas seemed to mask, rather than enhance the flavor and sweetness of the peas.  I say that it masked the flavor because I had a few raw sugar snaps while trimming them and they were delicious as is - light, fresh and sweet.  And then once I cooked them they lost some of their snap (which is to be expected), but they didn't pick up any additional flavor.  I felt like the lemon evoo just ran right off and didn't provide the sugar snaps with much flavor.  And while I normally love the combination of sugar snaps and mint, I didn't think the mint here did all that much to elevate the dish either.  Maybe I should have stuck to my tried and true Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Radishes, Mint and Ricotta Salata...  I don't know.  But I do know that with the remaining pound of sugar snaps I will be making other (and hopefully more successful) dishes!

Recipe after the jump!


Blistered Snap Peas with Mint
Adapted from Food & Wine


1 tablespoon pure olive oil
2 pounds sugar snap peas, ends trimmed and strings discarded
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon olive oil
Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon
1/4 cup mint leaves, torn

Set a large, cast iron skillet over high heat until very hot, about 2 minutes. Add the pure olive oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add the snap peas and cook for 3-4 minutes, until the peas are crisp-tender and blistered in places. Remove from heat, toss the peas with the lemon oil and season with salt. Transfer to a serving bowl. Scatter the mint on top and serve.