This is one of our favourite things – you can use frozen peas for the, er, peas, but you really do need the pods for the stock, so we only have it in summer.

Take about 500g of peas in the pod, and shell them.  Put the pods in a pan with about 1l of chicken stock (we had some from the shoup I made yesterday, but a stock cube is fine), bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Drain the stock, and put the pods on the compost heap.

We had some lovely spring onions from a friends garden, so we chopped up some of those, and sautéd them in olive oil with some pancetta.  Then we added the stock, and 6oz of risotto rice (I know – I’m mixing the measurements here; sorry).  Bring to the boil, and simmer gently for 15 minutes.  Then add the peas, and simmer for another 5 minutes.  Add some shavings of parmesan and that’s it.

Serve it in bowls, as it is quite a soupy texture.