PRIMAVERA

PRIMAVERA

Finally. Spring. Asparagus; young lamb; artichokes, grilled or braised or fried; peas and pea shoots; spring onions (ramps); salmon grilled or poached, with pesto; morel mushrooms; bulb fennel sliced and eaten raw or poached tender; lemonade with amarena cherries at the bottom of the glass; yum.

I am soon to make a dish of pan-roasted lamb chops, steamed asparagus with mashed English pea and scallion sauce, grilled poached fennel drizzled with the best green, earthy extra virgin olive oil and cracked pepper and crushed sea salt. Simple sesame topped bread, and a big bottle of medium-bodied red wine completes my “hello” to spring. A basket of wild strawberries will be ferreted out from somebody, somewhere, and they must be small, sweet as sugar, and with perfume you can smell ten feet away.