Once all the snap peas are fried, turn off the heat under the oil and arrange the peas in a serving bowl. Shower with the Parmigiano, mint, and a pinch of chile flakes and serve right away with lemon wedges and a bowl of tonnato for dipping.
Season Two
Early Summer
The seasons don’t ever divide themselves neatly. Spring flows into early summer in fits and starts. A week of T-shirt weather may be followed by a string of cool gray days, challenging our optimism about summer’s arrival.
But such weather ambivalence is great in the garden and on the farm. It offers enough sun to give vegetables traction to start growing in earnest but keeps growth in check with still-cool nights. The soil itself is warming, too, encouraging roots and tubers to develop into harvestable sizes.
Not only is early summer a seesaw between warm and cool weather, it’s also when you’ll find vegetables in both young and mature stages. For example, you may encounter tender new carrots as well as more developed ones that overwintered from last fall. Those months in the cold developed their sugars and made their texture more dense and firm. I’ll treat the true young carrots, beets, and turnips with a lighter hand than the mature ones.
Recipes of Early Summer
Beet Slaw with Pistachios and Raisins
Roasted Beets, Avocado, and Sunflower Seeds
Carrots, Dates, and Olives with Crème Fraîche and Frico
Grilled Carrots, Steak, and Red Onion with Spicy Fish-Sauce Sauce
Pan-Roasted Carrots with Carrot-Top Salsa Verde, Avocado, and Seared Squid
Lamb Ragu with Carrots and Green Garlic
Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, and Parmigiano
Celery Puntarelle-Style
Celery, Sausage, Provolone, Olives, and Pickled Peppers
Celery, Apple, and Peanut Salad
Cream of Celery Soup
Celery Gratin
Braised Celery and Radicchio Salad with Perfect Roast Chicken
Chilled Seafood Salad with Fennel, Radish, Basil, and Crème Fraîche
Roasted Fennel with Apples, Taleggio Cheese, and Almonds
Fennel Two Ways with Mussels and Couscous
Smashed New Potatoes with Lemon and Lots of Olive Oil
Potato and Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Olives, Feta, and Arugula
Pan-Roasted New Potatoes with Butters
Turnip Salad with Yogurt, Herbs, and Poppy Seeds
Sautéed Turnips with Prunes and Radicchio
Beets (Early Season)
When early beets come into season, my cooking instantly gets more colorful. Between the magentas, marigolds, oranges, and those amazing pink-and-white bull’s-eye–patterned Chioggia varieties, beets bring artistry to my dishes just by showing up. (For mature beets.)
A bonus bunch. A freshly dug bunch of beets comes with a bonus—leafy greens, which are like tender, mild Swiss chard (they’re actually from the same family). This early in the summer season, I choose my beets by how good the greens look. The beets themselves will be smaller than later in the summer—often only about the size of golf balls. Farmers usually bunch together beets of the same size, which makes prep and cooking easy. I sometimes see bunches of very tiny beets that are sold for their green tops only. I prefer to wait until each end of the beet has something for me to eat.
I cut off the beet tops as soon as I get to the kitchen and refrigerate them in a separate plastic bag, in the same way that I’d store salad greens. The beets themselves are good keepers, so provided they’re loosely wrapped in plastic and kept cold, they’ll be good for a few weeks.
Eat raw. When you do get a fresh young beet, eat it soon and don’t bother cooking it. Crunchy and juicy, a young beet hasn’t yet developed the full measure of pronounced minerality and earthiness of a mature beet. That earthiness, which some people say tastes like dirt, does actually come from dirt, though not directly. Certain microbes in the soil produce an organic compound called geosmin, which gives beets their distinct character.
Test before peeling. I decide whether to peel a young beet by biting into a slice. If I detect a big difference in the texture of the skin versus the texture of the interior, then I’ll go ahead and peel the beet with a vegetable peeler or paring knife. For cooked beets, I’ll usually leave on the skins during cooking and then simply rub them off with my fingers or scrape them off with a knife.
Aim for al dente. Though I mostly eat them raw, when I do cook young beets I steam or roast them—and I have been known to grill them. But for any method, the trick is to cook them until just barely tender. You don’t want the texture to be at all mushy. They should be a perfect al dente—soft, but with a memory of recent crunchiness.
At the market If you’re lucky enough to get a bunch of root vegetables that still have their greens attached—and the greens are in pristine condition—you get a two-for-one bonus. The greens can be enjoyed on their own, as you would any cooking green, or integrated into the dish with the roots themselves.
Beet Slaw with Pistachios and Raisins
The pistachio butter underneath the slaw is like an Asian peanut sauce, bringing a much fuller nut flavor than the pistachios could offer alone. As you eat the dish, the juices from the slaw dissolve into the pistachio butter and make a crazy good sort of vinaigrette.
» Serves 4
2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
½ cup golden raisins
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1¼ pounds beets, peeled; use a mix of colors if you can
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ cup lightly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves
¼ cup lightly packed mint leaves
½ teaspoon dried chile flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
Pistachio Butter
Combine the garlic, raisins, and vinegar in a large bowl and let sit for 1 hour.
Grate the beets on the large holes of a box grater or cut into fine julienne. Yes, your hands will get stained, but the color fades quickly.
Remove the garlic from the raisins and discard. Add the beets, lemon juice, most of the parsley and mint (save the rest for finishing), and chile flakes. Season with 1½ teaspoons salt and lots of black pepper and toss. Let it sit for about 5 minutes and then taste—the slaw should be tart, spicy, peppery, and sweet. Adjust the seasoning, if necessary, then add ¼ cup olive oil. Toss and taste again.
To serve, spread a layer of pistachio butter onto each plate and top with the slaw. Finish with the reserved fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil.
Roasted Beets, Avocado, and Sunflower Seeds
The pepperoncini and sunflower seeds make this like a “salad bar” salad, though the similarity stops there. I always use beet tops, in the same way I like to use radish tops (provided they’re in good shape). I give them a quick sauté and a brief marination, then toss them into the dish.
» Serves 4
1 pound beets, ideally with pristine greens attached
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
¼ cup salted roasted sunflower seeds
½ cup lightly packed roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
4 scallions, trimmed (including ½ inch off the green tops), sliced on a sharp angle, soaked in ice water for 20 minutes, and drained well
½ cup lightly packed seeded, chopped pickled peppers, such as pepperoncini
2 firm-ripe avocados
Heat the oven to 375°F.
Trim the tops and bottoms off the beets. Wash the greens and spin dry in a salad spinner. Rinse and scrub the beets to remove any mud or grit. Cut up any larger beets so that they are all about the same size.
Put the beets in a baking di
sh that’s large enough to accommodate all of them in a single layer. Season with salt, then pour ¼ cup water into the dish. Cover tightly with foil and steam-roast until the beets are tender when pierced with a knife. Depending on the size, density, and age of the beets, this could take between 30 minutes and 1 hour.
Meanwhile, if you have beet greens to cook, heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil, add the beet greens, and toss them until they are wilted and a bit stewed, about 5 minutes. Set aside until cool, then chop through them a few times.
When the beets are tender, let them cool until you can handle them, then rub or pare away the skins. Cut into ½-inch wedges or chunks and pile into a bowl. Add the greens.
While the beets are still warm, sprinkle with the vinegar, ½ teaspoon salt, and many twists of black pepper. Toss to distribute the seasonings and let the beets absorb the vinegar for a few minutes. Add a healthy glug of olive oil and toss again. Let the beets sit at room temperature until you’re ready to serve.
To assemble for serving, add the sunflower seeds, parsley, scallions, and pickled peppers and toss gently. Peel the avocados and cut them into neat chunks that are about the same size as the beet wedges, and add them to the beets, too. Toss thoroughly but very gently, so you don’t mash the avocado too much. Taste and adjust with more salt, black pepper, vinegar, or oil. Serve right away.
In the kitchen Always dress cooked roots and potatoes while they’re still warm. The acidic ingredients will be absorbed more deeply, making your final dish nicely bright.
Carrots (Early Season)
May I correct the record here? Those stubby orange nubs in plastic bags labeled “baby carrots” have nothing to do with an early-season, truly young, freshly dug carrot. A real baby carrot is delicately sweet with a touch of herbal flavor, with a clean snap to the texture that you’ll never get in a mature carrot, even if it is shaved down to a nugget.
Buy the roots, get the greens. Young carrots usually come with their big spray of green tops intact. (The smaller the carrot, the more tender the tops.) When you buy carrots at the farmers’ market, the vendor usually asks whether you’d like them removed. Say no, and bring yours home. While carrot tops are not as versatile as the tops of other roots (such as beets or radishes) because their frilly leaves are slightly tough, fibrous, and a tad bitter, they are indeed edible and extremely nutritious. Wash and dry them as you would herbs or salad greens and then make a puree, pesto, or salsa verde from them.
Pick them small. My ideal early carrot is about six inches long—young enough to be delicate and sweet, but large enough to have developed some depth of flavor. We grew Napolis at the farm in Maine, which are a perfect all-around carrot, and I adore the multicolored carrot varieties (different seed companies have different names for these). Also look for tiny, round Thumbelinas. They are super sweet and sort of adorable.
No rush. Store the carrots in the fridge in plastic, separate from the greens. Other than wanting to enjoy them, there’s no great hurry to use a carrot, since they keep well. (Explore the virtues of mature carrots.)
Start with raw. Raw is definitely the first way to go when carrot season arrives. Once you’ve had your fill munching out of hand, look to raw carrot salads. Nothing is prettier than a carrot slaw made from purple, orange, yellow, and white carrots. Carrots make terrific pickles to serve on a pickle plate and to incorporate into other dishes, and pan-roasted or grilled carrots are a treat this time of the season.
Carrots, Dates, and Olives with Crème Fraîche and Frico
This is a perfect salad in which to use the rainbow carrots that show up at the market in early summer, but it works equally well in the dead of winter with storage carrots. For a party, make a dramatic presentation by plating individual salads and arranging one large frico over each. And of course the salad is fantastic frico-less if you don’t have time for garnish making.
» Serves 4
1 pound carrots, trimmed and peeled
Extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon dried chile flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
⅓ cup roughly chopped pitted Niçoise or other nice black olives
⅓ cup roughly chopped pitted Castelvetrano or other nice green olives
4 Medjool dates, pitted and very roughly chopped
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
½ cup lightly packed roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 cup crème fraîche
Frico
If the carrots are large, split them lengthwise; if slender, leave them whole. Cut them on a sharp angle so you have long, angled, ¼-inch-thick pieces of carrot.
Put the carrots in a medium saucepan or skillet, add a glug of olive oil and ½ cup water, and season with the chile flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, and many twists of black pepper. Cook at a lively simmer, uncovered, until the carrots are just crisp-tender, 5 to 7 minutes—they should still have definite crunch.
Cool the carrots slightly, drain off any liquid, and pile into a bowl. Add the olives and dates. Pour in the vinegar and toss. Taste and adjust with salt, black pepper, chile flakes, or vinegar until the flavor is super vibrant. Add the parsley and toss again. Drizzle with a glug of olive oil and toss again.
Divide the crème fraîche among 4 plates or a platter and spread it around in a nice schmear. Pile the carrot salad on top, leaving some cream visible. If you’re serving with the fricos, lay them on top, either whole or broken into shards.
A sharp angle creates more surface area for the carrots to absorb the seasoning.
Grilled Carrots, Steak, and Red Onion with Spicy Fish-Sauce Sauce
This dish came to be while I was working on the farm and grilling out one summer night. Somehow a carrot ended up on the grill, and from that point on, every vegetable became fair game for the flame! Be sure you don’t coat your carrots with oil before you grill them; grilled oil just tastes like chemicals to me. Note that you can absolutely leave the steak out of this dish and it will be just as good.
» Serves 2
¾ pound steak that’s good on the grill (skirt, tri-tip, rib-eye, or other cut that you like)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ pound carrots, trimmed and peeled, left whole if very slender or split lengthwise if larger
1 large red onion (about 12 ounces), ends trimmed, peeled, and cut into fat slices
About ¼ cup Spicy Fish-Sauce Sauce
2 cups lightly packed mixed fresh herbs (such as flat-leaf parsley, mint, chives, dill, chervil, basil, even baby arugula)
3 big lime wedges
Extra-virgin olive oil
Season the steak with 1 teaspoon salt and several twists of pepper. Set aside.
Heat a gas grill to medium.
Arrange the carrots and onion slices on the grill and cook, turning frequently, until they are starting to soften and brown a bit (the carrots should be about as soft as a cooked beet, and the onions should be quite tender and juicy), about 15 minutes.
Increase the heat to medium-high, blot any moisture off the steak, and add it to the grill. Cook to rare to medium-rare, 3 to 5 minutes per side, depending on how thick it is. Don’t overcook it! As you’re cooking the steak, make sure the carrots and onions are not charring too much—a few dark edges will be nice, however.
Take everything off the grill. Let the steak rest as you cut the carrots on an angle into long slices and cut the onion rings in half—it’s okay if they fall apart at this point.
After the steak has rested for at least 5 minutes, cut it across the grain, and at an angle to the cutting board, into thin strips. Pile the steak, onions, and carrots into a large bowl and pour on ¼ cup of the spicy fish-sauce sauce and any steak juices that have accumulated. Toss, taste, and add more sauce if you need for the flavors to be bright and delicious.
Gently toss the fres
h herbs in a small bowl with the juice from one lime wedge, a bit of salt and pepper, and a small drizzle of olive oil. Gently fold the fresh herb salad into the steak salad. Serve with a lime wedge and more sauce on the side.
In the kitchen Don’t oil your vegetables before you grill them, because the oil burns and tastes acrid. Instead, grill them “dry” to get a lovely char, and then dress with oil afterward.
Pan-Roasted Carrots with Carrot-Top Salsa Verde, Avocado, and Seared Squid
Carrot tops are full of flavor and nutrients, so make the carrot-top salsa verde and serve it with simple roasted carrots or as a condiment to grilled meats and fish. You can also grill the carrots for this recipe.
» Serves 4
1 bunch young carrots with very fresh greens (about 1 pound total)
½ cup lightly packed roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
½ cup lightly packed mint leaves
2 scallions, trimmed (including ½ inch off the green tops), finely chopped
¼ cup capers, rinsed, drained, and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest plus the zest of 1 lemon
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Hot sauce, such as Sriracha
Six Seasons Page 13
