When I had Chef April Bloomfield’s ricotta gnudi in New York at the James Beard Awards, and I had to recreate them, only with my own twist: A sauce of ramps and fresh porcini I found in the High Sierra.
Spring Recipes
Fiddlehead Stir Fry with Pork
Fiddleheads are in season in the East and Pacific Northwest, and these crunchy, pretty looking shoots are one of the hallmarks of springtime. They’re featured here in a simple Asian stir fry with wild boar backstrap.
Morel Tortellini
When life gives you mushrooms, make tortellini out of them. I love these little packets of love, and making them with morels is especially lovely.
Spring Ramp Risotto
It should be obvious by now how much I love spring onions in all their forms. This light, lovely Italian rice dish highlights whatever wild or store-bought green onion you have on hand, spiked with fresh spring green herbs.
Shad Roe with Bacon and Grits
Shad roe is a delicacy of springtime. In the East, the shad run in early spring. Here in the West, however, the fish don’t run up the rivers until late spring. Here’s my favorite way to cook shad roe – with bacon, some onions and a bowl of grits.
Pheasant Meatballs and Artichoke Soup
I call this recipe thistle soup. Little pheasant meatballs in a clear pheasant broth served with artichoke hearts and cardoons. It is a lovely light dinner or lunch in springtime. And don’t worry if you don’t have cardoons, you can skip them.
How to Eat Bracken Fern Safely
Bracken fern lives all over the world. And most every place it lives, people eat it. Yet it’s recently been branded as a carcinogen. That seems to be true, but like all things, the poison’s in the dose.
How to Eat Cholla Buds
Cholla buds are edible, believe it or not. Here’s how to harvest, prepare, store and eat the buds from the cholla cactus, which live in the American Southwest.