Seasonal Spring Sea of Green Pie with Ramp Dust

I drew some inspiration from @danieleuditi at @pizzana with his use of dehydrated basil. This time of year in the northeast, ramps (allium tricoccum) are in their full glory. If you know where to look, you'll find vast hillsides of vibrant green ramps. I wanted to make a seasonal pie that pays tribute to this incredible woodland ingredient. I harvested just the tender leaves of the plant, leaving the bulbs in the ground, and made a dehydrated ramp dust that is central to this pie. The powder retains the most amazing deep green color so we decided to call it the Sea of Green. Fired in my @oonihq Pro. Video of the whole process below.

Just a reminder to harvest ramps responsibly. Don't yank the bulbs or harvest more than you need! It takes seven years for ramps to reach maturity from seed.

Once you have your fresh ramps, I like to trim the stems off so you’re only drying the green leafy section of the plant. The stems are great as a pickled condiment, which can get eaten as is or processed into salad dressing. Any of your favorite pickling recipes will be great for the stems.

Place the leaves in the dehydrator and it should take about 2 - 3 hours until the leaves are fully dry. When done, they should be brittle and break apart in your fingertips.

In a bowl, crush the leaves with your hands to break them down to a smaller size. You can use a mortar and pestle to break down further or just skip ahead and blitz everything in a spice grinder to create a fine powder. You’ll be left with an amazing green colored dust that you can store by itself or mix it 50/50 with salt to make ramp salt. The raw ramp dust is extremely versatile and can be used to spice meat, vegetables, fused into sauces, etc.  I keep a jar of it in my spice cabinet and I store the rest in the freezer for future use. Like any spices, it will lose its potency over time.

For the pizza I have been very happy using a Ken Forkish recipe from Flour Water Salt Yeast for an overnight dough with levain. It’s one of the few recipes that I have decided not to mess with as it always yields great results.

The foundation of the pizza is a plain pie, with a parmesan laden red sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. The pie comes to life with a generous dusting of the ramp dust all over the top of the pie, followed by fresh basil leaves. It’s subtle and delicious.