Spring Greens

Yesterday morning I worked diligently away on the proofs of a book while the classical music station played songs related to May. Ah, May! Glorious spring! Month of full bloom! We can finally put that cruel month, April, behind us.

Interspersed between these gay tunes were weather updates about an approaching snowstorm and the threat of 6 inches or more…

So I should be happy, grateful even, that the prairie still looks like this, black except for the paths, from the prairie burn the day before. All the snow (as much as 14 inches) fell south and east of us. But since it was 32 degrees this morning when I woke up, I’m kind of saving my gratitude for later.

On April 30, however, I did manage– because I was just determined to eat from the garden in April– to get two lovely salads of baby greens topped with shaved parsnips on the table.

And I topped the very generic pasta with sauce from a jar and sautéed brats with some briefly sautéed arugula and sautéed green onions that survived in the cold frame.

I am loving sautéed arugula. I tend not to harvest the stuff when it is still a baby, and it gets too spicy for a salad as the leaves get bigger. Where it would overpower a salad, it does just fine with the main course.

This year we discovered the wonderful restaurant, Pizzeria Lola, in Minneapolis. My favorite pizza is one with Korean barbecue short ribs, mozzarella, scallions and arugula (with a soy chili vinaigrette) on top. I believe they prepare the greens off the pizza and just top it with them at the end, but I’m not sure. In any event, the arugula makes the dish extraordinary. I never thought I’d like lettuce on a pizza, but in this case, it works! I’m also a fan of this kind of this kind of vinaigrette. Since discovering a recipe for salmon and pea shoots in a sweet chili sauce vinaigrette, I’ve been using that flavor combination a lot more (soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, sesame oil, rice wine…)

So the first dish of the year, coming in late April and early May, is arugula.