Purple Hull Peas and Two Pasta Recipes

Until last summer, this was a new bean for me. Purple hull peas are members of the cow pea family and are another version of black eyed peas. The only place I ever see them is at Reed’s a local fruit and vegetable market off the square of downtown Franklin and they are already hulled and packaged.

They are so gorgeous to look at, but do lose some of that color when you cook them. I bought these already shelled, but they come in a long large purple hull.

Emerson Arkansas celebrates purple hull peas every year with an international Purple Hull Pea Festival, and some of the winners of the purple hull peas cook-off share their recipes here. You will find that they are often cooked with ham, or ham-hocks and served with corn bread. My take is a little more Italian inspired, using pancetta in one dish, and cooking them with pasta (risotto style) in another.

The most interesting recipe I saw was for Purple Hull Pea Nibblers from the 2007 Best Original Purple from Christine Snider for Purple Hull Pea Nibblers, something I want to try next time.

Purple Hull Peas, Pasta in Red Wine

Recipe for Pasta, Purple Hull Peas in Red wine (risotto style)

• 2 cups purple hull peas
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 T butter
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
• 1 T fresh rosemary, finely finely chopped
• 2-4 cups chicken broth (or boiling water that has been infused with herbs)
• 1/4 -1/2 cup Pecorino or parmigiano-reggiano cheese
• Pinch red chile pepper
• Sea salt, freshly ground pepper

Instructions

1. Cook purple hull peas. Saute garlic and onions, add beans, cover with water, bring to boil and then simmer for 30-40 minutes or until tender. Do NOT add salt until beans are cooked as salt will make their skin tough.
2. Sauté garlic in olive oil until softened. Add butter. Throw in pasta and for about 3 minutes cook the pasta just as you might for risotto. Add about 1/4 cup red wine and watch the pasta turn pink. Risotto requires hot broth be added a ladle at a time. Instead of using chicken broth, I just added water and a handful of herbs and boiled away.
3. Begin to add a cup at a time of boiling water and allow the pasta to absorb. I thought I would use a lot more broth than I did, but this isn’t arborio rice and don’t expect that creaminess, but, it is a really fun way to make this dish. Add more wine as you like (I used about 3/4 cup), and make sure you really cook off the alcohol taste. Add beans, chopped herbs, and pecorino cheese and red pepper. I’m not going to tell you how much of each, but I caution you not to add too much rosemary.
4. Don’t overcook the pasta…Again you’ll have to keep tasting…but I prefer my pasta VERY al dente.  Hopefully, you’ll start to make this and come up with your own bounty of flavors, tastes and textures…

Recipe for Pasta, Pancetta, Purple Hull Peas

Ingredients

• 2 cups purple hull peas
• 1 slice 1/2” thick pancetta, diced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 pound pasta
• 1/2 cup pecorino cheese
• 2-4 cups fresh spinach, cleaned and stemmed
• extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt, freshly cracked pepper

Instructions

1. Cook purple hull peas. Saute garlic and onions, add beans, cover with water, bring to boil and then simmer for 30-40 minutes or until tender. Do NOT add salt until beans are cooked as salt will make their skin tough.
2. Saute pancetta, add in garlic, until soft. Cook pasta according to direction and drain, reserving a bit of pasta water if needed.
3. To assemble: Pour hot pasta over the raw spinach. Add remaining ingredients. Top with grated cheese. Season to taste.