Miso pea pastina is a welcome way to eat your greens

The food I gravitate toward this time of year seems to reflect the world around it, and I’m continuing the trend with this vibrant Miso Pea Pastina.

Pastina translates to “little pasta” in Italian, and refers to any tiny pasta shape as well as the brothy dish that features the ingredient. Pastina has been making the rounds on TikTok for more than a year now, but creators continue to feature it in their videos that get hundreds of thousands of views, a feat in such a trend-driven space. As Celia Mattison writes in Bon Appétit, pastina’s enduring appeal is perhaps better exemplified by the generations of Italians and Italian Americans who fondly carry on the traditions of their own families’ recipes.

The dish is made simply and with few ingredients. Most versions use some combination of soffritto, broth, milk, butter and parmesan. Given its simple, starchy comfort, pastina is also called “Italian penicillin.” While nourishing foods like this often remind me of winter — and flu season — fellow allergy sufferers will agree that there is still room for easy, healing foods in spring. But beyond that, I wanted to give the simple dish a little extra seasonal flourish.

Initially, I considered including chopped spring vegetables, such as asparagus and artichokes, but part of the beauty of pastina is the small size of the pasta and the creamy, uniform texture of the dish. Inspired by almost neon green pea dips and a bright pea and pecorino pasta, I then got the idea to blanch peas and blend them with vegetable broth, white miso and tender herbs to create a deep green broth with a kiss of umami.

That broth is then added back into the pot the peas were blanched in, joining a few cloves of sautéed garlic. Once the mixture comes to a boil, the pastina is mixed in and cooked until al dente, which takes just minutes thanks to its size. Then a powerful trio of lemon juice, butter and pecorino Romano are stirred in, balancing the sweetness of the peas. I recommend serving the dish in shallow bowls, with lemon wedges, and finishing it off with a drizzle of olive oil and a scattering of herbs and more pecorino.

Thanks to frozen produce, you can enjoy this verdant pastina year-round, but if you really want a taste of the season, seek out fresh shucked peas. As for choosing an herb, I enjoyed the fresh flavor of mint, but the floral notes of basil and the savory bite of chives are also excellent here. You can even use a mix, if you like. And though pecorino Romano adds a salty funk that rounds out the flavors of the dish, I also tested the recipe with Parmesan and found that its milder, nuttier flavor still fared well. Grana Padano is another more subtle option.

I have no doubt that this recipe might send shivers down an Italian food purist’s spine, but I would hope that, once they had moved past the culinary liberties I’ve taken, they’d also be cheered by the color of spring gracing their bowl.

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Miso Pea Pastina

8 cups no-salt-added vegetable broth

One (16-ounce) bag frozen peas (no need to defrost)

3 tablespoons shiro (white) miso

¼ cup fresh tender herbs, such as mint, chives or basil, roughly chopped, plus more for optional garnish

½ teaspoon fine salt

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for serving

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 cups (12 ounces) pastina pasta, such as stelline or acini di pepe (see Substitutions)

1 lemon, halved

1 tablespoon unsalted butter (optional)

⅓ cup (1 ounce) finely grated pecorino Romano, plus more for serving

In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over high heat, bring the broth to a boil. Add the peas, and cook until bright green and barely cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes.

Transfer the broth mixture to a blender, and add the miso, herbs and salt. Blend on high, in batches if necessary, until very smooth. (Fill the blender no more than halfway, and be sure to remove the center ring from the lid and hold a kitchen towel over the lid as you blend to prevent splatters. Some flecks of herbs are fine.) You can also use an immersion blender to blend the mixture in the pot, then transfer it to a large bowl.

Use a kitchen towel to dry the same pot you used for blanching the peas. Set the pot over medium-high heat and heat the oil until shimmering. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant and just starting to turn golden, about 1 minute.

Return the broth mixture to the pot, being careful of any oil splattering. Bring the mixture to a boil and stir in the pasta. Decrease the heat to medium-low, so the liquid is gently simmering, and cook the pasta according to the package instructions until al dente. Stir the mixture occasionally so the pasta doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.

Squeeze one of the lemon halves to yield 2 tablespoons of juice; cut the remaining lemon half into wedges.

Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the butter, if using, until melted and incorporated. Stir in the lemon juice, then add the pecorino, a little bit at a time, stirring constantly, until incorporated.

Once the pasta slightly thickens from the stirring and residual heat, ladle into shallow bowls, drizzle with more olive oil, if you like, and serve hot, with lemon wedges for squeezing over, and more grated pecorino and herbs for topping.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 3 days. Reheat leftovers on the stove or in the microwave, adding more vegetable broth or water to loosen the consistency, if necessary.

Substitutions: For pastina, use pearled couscous, fregola sarda or orzo. For frozen peas, use fresh shucked peas (about 3 cups). For vegetable broth, use chicken broth. For pecorino Romano, use Parmesan or grana Padano. To make it vegan, use nondairy butter and cheese. Gluten-free? Use gluten-free pasta.

Nutritional information per serving (generous 1 cup based on 8) | 279 Calories: 43 g Carbohydrates, 4 mg Cholesterol, 8 g Fat, 5g Fiber, 10 g Protein, 1 g Saturated Fat, 318 mg Sodium, 5 g Sugar

— Anna Luisa Rodriguez