Anna Jones’s pea recipes

Peas please me. In fact, there are few vegetables that please me more than peas. For the next few weeks, my year-round staple, frozen peas, will be replaced by fresh peas in their pods. No one is more excited than my two-year-old son, who pods and eats them raw. There is a pleasing childlike quality to peas, which I’m sure is why they are so widely loved. This week, we’ve eaten them in this salad with salted lemons, ricotta and leaves; we took a brown bag of them to a picnic with a piece of pecorino; and we have even had peas for breakfast, smashed with herbs and olive oil, then piled on to flatbreads with poached eggs, chilli and lemon.

Poached egg, pea and chilli flatbreads (pictured above)

Prep 20 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 2

200g freshly podded peas (about 500g in their pods)
Salt and black pepper
Olive oil
1 red chilli, finely chopped
A small bunch coriander, chopped, plus more to serve
2 eggs
2 flatbreads or pittas
2 heaped tbsp Greek yoghurt
1 tsp pul biber (Turkish chilli flakes) or a pinch of dried chilli flakes
1 lemon

Bring a pan of salted water to a boil and add the peas. Cook for about three minutes, then scoop them out, keeping the water in the pan, simmering gently.

Mash the peas with some salt and pepper (or pulse a few times in a food processor), then add a drizzle of oil. Stir in half the chopped chilli and most of the coriander.

Next, poach the eggs. Everyone has their own method – I drop them into a just-simmering, shallow pan of water for three to four minutes, depending on the temperature of the eggs and how runny I want them, then scoop out and drain them well.

While the eggs are cooking, warm the flatbreads in the oven or in a dry frying pan on a medium heat for a minute or so on each side. Once warm, serve topped with the peas, a little yoghurt and a poached egg, then finish with the remaining chilli, coriander, the pul biber and a squeeze of lemon.

Peas, salted lemon, ricotta and sticky dates

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Prep 10 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 4

400g freshly podded peas (about 1kg in their pods), or frozen petits pois, defrosted
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for finishing
1 tbsp white-wine vinegar
Salt and black pepper
1 unwaxed lemon
250g ricotta
4 dates
4 handfuls pea shoots, or other delicate salad leaves

Blanch the peas in boiling water for two minutes. Drain well and, while warm, dress with the oil, vinegar and a good pinch of salt, then grate over the zest of half the lemon and set aside.

Season the ricotta, grate over the zest from the other half of the lemon and drizzle with a little olive oil.

Cut the lemon in half. Take one half and cut it in half again, picking out any big pips. Rest the flat side of each quarter on the chopping board and slice the lemon, peel and all, as thinly as you can, then put it into a bowl with a good pinch of salt and mix well to make your own, quick preserved lemon.

Remove the stones from the dates. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, add a splash of olive oil, then cook the dates for a couple of minutes until they are warm, chewy and are beginning to caramelise.

When you are ready to eat, spread the ricotta over the base of each plate or dot into bowls. Scatter over the peas, then the warm dates and the preserved lemon pieces. Mix the shoots or leaves with the juice from the other half of the lemon and a drizzle of olive oil, and lay over the top of the peas and ricotta.

• Food styling: Anna Jones. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food assistant: Nena Foster