Seared radish crostini, Earth Day's a'coming

I absolutely love radishes. I love their crunch, the little spritz of water you get when you bite into a fresh one, their pretty colors. I like them plain, or tossed in a salad, and in Paris once, they were served as a little palate cleanser with a bit of salt and butter. Aah… So, it was with delight that after bringing home several bunches of fresh radishes from the farmers market one day, I came across a new way to serve them: Melissa Clark’s Seared Radish Crostini. In essence, you make a warm anchovy butter sauce, sear the radishes in a hot skillet and then slop all that onto some grilled or toasted baguette slices. It is a unique, sublime way to enjoy radishes.

Tonight, I’m planning to make these but I’m also going to do a riff on the radish-as-star and sear Hakurei turnips too. These turnips and smaller and sweeter than regular purple top turnips. Hakureis are all white and when they’re young and fresh you can eat them raw and unpeeled. I love them and usually glaze them in a little butter and sugar; but tonight, they’re getting some special treatment.
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As you may or may not remember, Friday is Earth Day. Mamma Earth needs all the help she can get, so consider honoring her in some way: walk if you don’t need to drive; recycle plastic bags at the market; bring your own reusable bags for sure; plant a tree; consider greening some or all of your cleaning supplies; use diapers, paper towels and toilet paper that are made with recycled or PCW material and are not chlorinated; use less water- hey take the day off from laundry/dishwashers/etc; start a compost pile.

Since I have started composting, I have been amazed by how much food waste a family produces, even if you’re not the wasting type. Coffee grounds, food peels, eggshells, that bit of extra whatever that you just didn’t get to…it can all be composted. By composting in tandem with recycling, we now generate just about 2 bags of trash each week! And, you don’t need a fancy barrel to start a pile, although that’s nice and easy too; you can simply mark off an area in your yard (ours is by the garage and is fenced in by an old gate of Percy’s) and start tossing. The compost doesn’t smell at all, you can dump your lawn clippings in it, and it’s a kick for kids (and me) to watch the kabillions of worms crawling about each time you turn your pile.

Here’s a link that might be helpful: http://www.nrdc.org/thisgreenlife/

Ooh, school’s almost out. More later!

OK, for my first attempt at pasta making, I’d say this was a marginal success. They sure lo

OK, for my first attempt at pasta making, I’d say this was a marginal success. They sure looked pretty, and not one ravioli exploded while cooking, BUT they were exceedingly dense -think polenta ravioli- and masked much of the flavor of the filling. Perhaps it was fortuitous that I used Bûcheron tonight- it can surely make itself known. I think a pasta machine would definitely have helped! Suffice it to say that these ravs are not even the Lucy to today’s Homo sapien, in comparison to those Florentine jewels.

The carrot dish was fantastic though; such a lovely, flavorful way to use the fresh-from-the-dirt carrots from the farmers market.

Ravs in the making…These actually look pretty good, and by the end, the dough was pliable,

Ravs in the making…These actually look pretty good, and by the end, the dough was pliable, and I had the hang of stuffing, egg-white sealing, and crimping. It was meditative really, although the loons were racing around in the background. I set a timer and told them they had to play until it beeped. Pretty much every 2 minutes, Jack asked “did it beep yet?” I’m thinking, “buddy, did you hear it? is this not a question to which you already know the answer?” (we are trying to enforce the rule of no asking questions you already know the answer to). Anyway, they did OK, and Tom, husband of the year, came home early and did bathtime so I finished the ravs successfully.

In the meantime, I opened the bottle of Viognier- but did wait until 6p ;)- and pondered a couple kitchen lessons that I wish to share:

1) Be willing to improvise and have fun. The pasta machine really could have thrown me, and as I read further, I saw the note to use a “quite mild goat cheese.” Hah! I bought the assertive, not mild stuff: Bûcheron. Do you know it? It’s an aged goat cheese from France and is awesome.

2) Think creatively. I do not have a pastry or ravioli press and actually don’t even have a round cookie cutter. So, guess what came in handy? The Born Free sippy cup top cover. That’s what I cut my ravs out with and they look lovely.

When I saw this recipe, I was immediately transported back to Florence, Italy, 2007. Jack, then 15 months, and I went for three weeks (Tom joined us for 2), and rented an apartment near my sister, Elia. I had studied Italian during my pregnancy so could get us around fairly well, and we became regulars in the pasticcerias, panificios and markets in our neighborhood. The St Ambrogio market was like the ultimate farmers market: it reeked of authenticity; generations-old traditions and recipes; effusive, kind, totally unpretentious Italian craftsmen/women; and gorgeous, fresh produce, meats, cheeses, breads, flowers, herbs and on and on. It was incredible, and Jack and I went regularly. He loved the polpettini (little meatballs) and I discovered ravioli di limone. They were ethereal little pillows of lemony, ricotta’y air. I asked how to prepare them and was told a simple lemon butter sauce was all I needed. Mamma mia- it was beyond.

So tonight is my ode to the St. Ambrogio lemon ravioli, that trip to Florence and my sister and Michele.