Simmering asparagus briefly in well-salted water is the way for first-of-the-season asparagus. A stellar first course or a light lunch.
salt and pepper
Baked Peppers with Feta and Bread Crumbs
Sweet peppers seem destined for stuffing, given their shape and hollow interior. There are all kinds of delightful sweet peppers available, in every color and size. I found some diminutive, colorful Gypsy peppers at the market one day and came up with this dish, which actually qualifies as dainty and delicate.
Faith’s Hearty Curried Lentil Vegetable Soup
This is one of Faith’s favorite go-to soup-as-a-meal recipes. She prefers red lentils, simply because she finds them beautiful, but you could use brown lentils if that’s what you have or what you like. As a last step, she uses an immersion blender to thicken the soup, but you don’t have to if you like the texture of the plump cooked lentils as they are.
Alex Province’s Seafood Soup with Sherry Wine
The same way I save the chicken carcass after a chicken dinner to make stock, I save lobster shells all summer long and turn them into broth. You can do this with shrimp shells, too. What do the shells add to the broth? A beautiful brininess. It’s the essence of the sea.
Eggplant Rounds with Goat Cheese and Herb Salsa
This light dish, perfectly portioned and wonderfully herbaceous, works as a fresh appetizer, starter, or alongside a grilled steak, pork chop, or steak.
Cullen Skink
What do you do when family friends from Maine give you the gift of smoked haddock? If you’re Mark Raymond, you hit the web and look for a recipe worthy of such a prized fish (the flavor is amazing!). Mark came across this Scottish classic on the blog Christina’s Cucina and had to make it. […]
