No more mushy peas! These sauteed English peas are so good, even avowed vegetable haters will love them.

Jessica Webster | AnnArbor.com

The poor lowly pea. Usually served boiled or steamed to a mushy, flavorless state; sentenced to being pushed around the plate by miserable children who have been told they must eat their vegetables before they can leave the table.

It was elementary school hot lunch that ruined peas for me for most of my early life. School lunches have been under attack in recent years for being high in calories and low in nutrients, but my big problem with them was that they just plain tasted bad. And the vegetables were the worst.

It took me several decades to realize that peas didn’t have to taste like aluminum. In fact, if you shell freshly-picked peas yourself and don’t overcook them, they can be quite delightful.

My new found love of peas is actually quite reactionary. While they have long been a staple of the western diet, they became a huge culinary fad in the 17th and 18th centuries, according to Wikipedia. Noted foodie founding father Thomas Jefferson loved peas and cultivated more than 30 varieties of the plant on his estate.

If it’s good enough for Thomas Jefferson, it’s good enough for me. I’ve had my eyes on the gorgeous-looking English peas they stock at the Produce Station, so I bought a container and set them on my kitchen counter and waited for inspiration.

The key for me was to make sure the peas weren’t mushy, so no boiling or steaming for me. A quick saute seemed to be the way to go. With my vegetable-hating son in mind, I decided to add some prosciutto to make it more palatable. If you’re not a meat eater, you can replace the prosciutto with a couple of teaspoons of olive oil and some minced garlic.

The result was exactly what I was hoping for. Vibrantly green, bursting with flavor, a little crispy on the outside and cooked through without being mushy. And my son asked for more.

Sauteed English peas

• 3 thin slices prosciutto or bacon
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3 cups of shelled English peas
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium heat. Quickly fry the prosciutto or bacon until the fat has been rendered and the meat is crisp — one to two minutes per side for prosciutto, longer for bacon.

2. Remove the pan from heat, and use tongs to remove the prosciutto from the pan. Set the prosciutto on a paper towel-lined plate and return the pan to medium heat.

3. Add the red pepper flakes to the bacon grease in the pan, then saute the peas for 3 to 4 minutes, until some of the skin begins to crisp up.

4. Crumble the prosciutto and toss together with the peas in a medium-sized serving bowl. Salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

Jessica Webster leads the Food & Grocery section for AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at JessicaWebster@AnnArbor.com.