Entries from The Amateur Gourmet tagged with 'Spring'
Asparagus & Rhubarb
I used to be very confused about seasonal food. I understood the basic idea--that you should buy food when it's in season, at its peak--but what I didn't understand is that because most supermarkets in America stock these "seasonal" foods all-year round (tomatoes and watermelon in winter), the only real way to experience seasonal food is by going to farmer's markets....
Penne with Broccoli Rabe
Broccoli rabe is usually the first thing I buy at the farmer's market when the weather gets warmer. It's a transitional vegetable: something that bridges us from the dark and murky vegetables of winter to the bright and sprightly vegetables of summer. Raw, it tastes rather fresh and green, but cooked, it takes on all these wonderful qualities--it becomes bitter and complex and, as Lydia Bastianich says when she cooks with it on this old episode of Julia Child: "almondy."...
A Springy Lunch at Al Di La
Al Di La is one of my favorite restaurants: not just in Park Slope, but anywhere. As anyone who's been there for dinner knows, they don't take reservations and often the wait can be more than an hour long. So going to Al Di La is often a special occasion, a complicated affair that requires putting your name in, going somewhere else for a drink, waiting for your phone to ring (they call you) and journeying back. But now all that's changed: Al Di La lovers can rejoice -- one of New York's best Italian restaurants is now open for lunch....
