TRECCE DI GIULIETTA (the braids of Juliet) WITH ARUGULA PESTO ** PEASHOOT & ARUGULA SALAD WITH MEYER’S LEMON DRESSING ** CHICKEN STUFFED WITH ROASTED LEEKS & TURNIPS

Saturday’s class featured four ingredients – arugula, pea shoots, baby turnips and leeks.  (If you were to visit Italy this month, on every local menu you would find: arugula salad, pasta with arugula or arugula stuffed seafood.  No tomatoes!)  The intelligence, of course, is to use what is fresh and seasonal.   For class this week, with the exception of a lemon, all the produce was grown by Missy Huger and Chris Sawyer at Jake’s Farm located in Candler.  They are a certified organic farm, with whom I have been doing business for many years.  (Note on your calendar, tailgate markets open April 17.)

The theme of SATURDAY’S KITCHEN – go to market, come home and prepare the basics for the remainder of the week.  In 3 hours, we prepared the “foundation” for all the recipes featured this week.  My approach is not to teach “recipes” – instead it is to demonstrate techniques and provide a road map of how to get from a starting point (buying at market) to some destination (a meal or menu).  I think I even said “recipes are crutches!”  Ouch.  Demonstrated in a few hours of concentrated work is how to provide many easy, delicious meals for the entire week.  To eat well, you must cook, a little mess in unavoidable, however, do it all at once, the rest is easy.

Here are recipes featuring the first of Spring’s seasonal ingredients.  Later this week, I will post up the cooking “logic” of turning basic ideas into many dishes. Read More