Good morning! Today we have for you:
Spring greens are a goAsparagus, leeks, ramps, spinach, radishes and tiny green and pink coleus plants for the window boxes. Such was my farmers’ market haul this week, proving that even the prolonged cool spell in the Northeast can’t stop spring from springing. The asparagus is already gone. I sautéed it with the ramps, and we ate that with softly scrambled eggs and toast. Next up are the leeks, which I might pair with delicate white fish and olive salsa verde. Roasting the fish and leeks together at high heat allows some of the leeks to turn silky and soft while the bits at the edges of the pan get nicely brown and crisp. Prep Tip: If your olives have pits, the easiest way to remove them is to lay them out on a clean dish towel and smush them with something heavy, like a skillet or a pot. Then simply pick the pits out before chopping the olives (or just tear them apart, because the torn edges have great texture). Or, you know, buy pitted olives. Featured Recipe Roasted Fish With Leeks and Olive Salsa VerdeAlso on the menuSpinach one-pot pasta: About that spinach — I bought the mature, crinkly kind, which has a deeper, more mineral flavor than the standard baby shoots. But you can use spinach of any age in Yasmin Fahr’s easy meal. She tosses pasta and spinach with both anchovies and Parmesan for a double hit of umami panache. White beans with radishes, miso and greens: This 10-minute dish from Colu Henry is a perfect destination for radishes, which she pairs with canned white beans that have been sautéed in butter and garlic and mixed with miso and tender greens. Pumpkin cardamom crumb muffins: A few weeks ago I made Dan Pelosi’s muffins with some leftover roasted butternut squash purée foraged from the freezer, and my family is nuts about them. Even though I cut the sugar to ¾ cup (from 1 ¼ cups), they are plenty sweet enough — like mini coffee cakes with a crisp, cinnamon-spiced topping. For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started. Reading and eatingAs soon as I finished Andrew Miller’s “The Land in Winter,” about two couples whose relationships unravel during a startlingly cold winter in England in 1962, I immediately picked it back up and reread the whole thing. Have you ever done that with a book? If so, drop me a note at hellomelissa@nytimes.com. I’m always on the lookout for a good read. In the story, Irene, one of the protagonists, makes coq au vin, which might be just the thing for tonight if you’re looking for a Sunday afternoon project with savory, winy results. Or you can make Lidey Heuck’s much speedier white beans au vin, ready in under an hour.
See you tomorrow!
|
