Pour six tablespoons of the extra-virgin olive oil over the 80g bowl of blanched peas, add six tablespoons of lemon juice and a teaspoon of salt, stir to combine and put to one side.
Heat all the remaining oil in a large saute pan for which you have a lid, add the onion and a teaspoon and a half of salt, and cook, stirring, on a low to medium heat for about 10 minutes, until browning, soft and sweet.
I’ll admit that my recipe wantonly uses frozen petit pois, which are then in part pickled and in part whizzed up to make a stock in which to cook the orzo; nevertheless, eating it brings its own warm and welcome Italian sunshine to my English kitchen in cold, dark February.
Stir in the pea puree, nutritional yeast, the remaining two tablespoons of lemon juice and a half-teaspoon of ground black pepper; if the mix seems quite stiff, stir in warm or hand-hot water to loosen (I added 150ml).
Put 300g of the peas in a heatproof bowl and the other 80g in a second bowl, then pour boiling water over both, leave for three minutes, and drain separately.
