Crostini with toasted pine nuts, asparagus, asiago, and tomato

Spaghetti with mizuna with lemon-garlic and thyme sauce

Roast chicken

Sabayon with fresh strawberries

 

 Since we were having company I actually planned out the menu in advance rather than trying with greater or less success to wing it.  This meal was structured around a huge bag of mizuna from the garden of Gary Grossman.  Mizuna is native to Japan and has a peppery flavor that some compare to arugula.  It goes well with citrus, and I had originally thought to wilt it and put it on top of the crostini, where it would have been great with lemon, pine nuts and tomato.  I was already committed to lemon garlic sauce for the pasta, however, and I didn’t want to have two lemon-based dishes.

Like Clara I am using oven-roasted tomatoes for preparations like the crostini.  The intensification of flavor produced is a great way to improve the quality of you off-season tomatoes trucked in from thousands of miles away.  I got my way of doing it from Mark Bittman (Minimalist Gourmet) who includes it in Mark Bittman Takes on Amnerica’s Chefs, although I roast them (sliced with salt pepper, olive oil, and thyme) for longer and at a slightly higher temperature than he does (300 degrees).   

For the pasta dish I dipped the mizuna in boiling water for 40 seconds, fished it out, drained, chopped, and added it to the spaghetti after it had drained.  The sauce was very simple:  ½ cup olive oil, four cloves garlic rough-chopped, salt cooked at medium-low heat for 20 minutes.  The garlic pieces to not brown but lose all of their sharpness.   I don’t strain them out but put them right in with the pasta.  After the cooking was done I put in a tablespoon or so of fresh thyme and poured the whole thing over the drained pasta.  

I made the decision yesterday to harvest garlic (photo), even though it was not quite mature.  It may just be a little too slow developing to win a place in such a small garden as ours, and that row was slated for other things.  Too bad it couldn't have gone into last night's dinner.  Instead, it is curing on the patio.

We are starting to get fresh strawberries at the farmer’s market and so had them in cups for dessert, covered with a spoonful of sabayon, a sauce made form egg yolks, sugar and marsala wine whisked on the stovetop until thickened, then finished with some sweetened whipped cream folded in and chilled.  Good stuff.