Have I Got a Focaccia For You

Plus: Spring Vegetable Soup, Citrus Beet Mozzarella Salad, and Dinner at Barbuto.

Hey everyone,

Good morning! Don’t let your eyes deceive you: it’s not fall. We’re not cooking with butternut squash and sage because Thanksgiving is coming up, etc… that’s all behind us. It’s spring, silly. There are leaves on the trees and flowers in bloom and asparagus at farmer’s markets.

So why am I posting this recipe for Focaccia with Butternut Squash, Garlic, and Sage?

Well, because after dinner at Sailor last week I was flipping through one of April Bloomfield’s cookbooks and this recipe called out to me. I just had to make it. True, I could’ve made it with springier ingredients, but I just decided to go with it. Call it culinary intuition.

And you know what? It was sooooo worth it. This focaccia made the apartment smell so good and that combination of garlic, squash, and sage is so perfect, it should be enjoyed year-round.

So click the button below for the post and the recipe. You won’t be disappointed!

And what did I serve with said focaccia?

Another April Bloomfield recipe, this one for a spring vegetable soup.

Honestly, this recipe is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of thing (so this is more of my take on her recipe than her actual recipe which you can find in A Girl and Her Pig). I used Jerusalem artichokes that I found at the farmer’s market Sunday morning.

I also used green garlic, ramps (yes, ramps are here!), Swiss chard, and asparagus.

Here’s the gist: you sauté sliced green garlic and spring onions (or regular onions, like me) in olive oil with a big pinch of salt until it’s softened. (I also added rainbow chard stems b/c I had rainbow chard.)

Then you add chopped, peeled Jerusalem artichokes (about 10 small ones) and a chopped carrot, another pinch of salt, and cook until it’s translucent, about 4 minutes.

Add 4 cups of water, a can of drained beans, cook everything for 30 minutes at a simmer with some more salt until you can mush all of the ingredients against the side of the pan.

Finally, stir in the sliced ramps, a bunch of chopped mint leaves and the Swiss chard leaves, and asparagus that you thinly slice.

It all cooks together for a few more minutes and you can adjust with lemon juice, more salt, and Aleppo pepper. With the focaccia, it was a dreamy spring meets fall dinner.

I’ve been playing around a lot with mozzarella and citrus lately. This time, I boiled some beets that came in my new CSA (I joined Local Roots), peeled them, and served them up with sliced citrus and some lettuces with olive oil, a splash of white Balsamic vinegar, Maldon sea salt, and a big blob of mozzarella right in the middle. that also got drizzled with olive oil, plus a sprinkling of Aleppo pepper.

So simple and sooooo good.

Finally, we saw the musical Dead Outlaw on Friday. If you live in New York and if you like Cohen Brothers movies and inventive musicals, this is the show for you. It’s only playing for a few more weeks.

Afterwards, we had dinner at Barbuto where Craig ordered the steak.

And I had spaghetti with rock shrimp and ramp butter. Ramps again! We didn’t have ramps in L.A., or they were rarely if ever featured on a menu. So I love experiencing them again here.

Barbuto still remains a great West Village go-to spot, especially in its new location.

Hey, let’s look at some links:

• Elyssa Heller’s Grub Street Diet (Grub Street);

• Tiger Tail Ice Cream… I’m curious! (Atlas Obscura);

• One of Manhattan’s Most Ambitious Sichuan Chefs is Back in Business (Eater NY);

• If you like the movie Romancing the Stone (and who doesn’t?), this is a fascinating/sad article about the woman who wrote it (NYT).

That’s all for today, folks!

See you back here on Thursday….

Your pal,

Adam