Cooking in the greening days of spring
My first dinner is next week and I am very happy. The calendar has rolled around again, tourists arrive, there were tour buses in the parking lots this morning when I went to market. The biggest thing, however, was combing through the lists of dishes in my mind and in my magic purple book to make menus again.
A tramp through the market shows me what’s in season for sure– the strawberries are still from Spain– but I found things like duck and goose eggs, more artichokes than most people will ever have seen in one place, and the first of the tiny baking potatoes for antipasto. I can’t bring myself to buy the live hens and pigeons that the vendor will kill to order. If I were rich I might buy them all and set them free. I’d be arrested because Città di Castello may have a swan park, but they do not encourage poultry in the streets.
Inside the wall my herb lady sold me not only a gorgeous oregano plant but perhaps the most glamorous cauliflower ever. I shall make a portrait of her when the sun is shining.
A trip to my butcher proved that in her opinion, at least, pork is better than veal still a while. She tried to talk me into turkey and again I had to explain how mundane turkey usually seems to Americans, even though at €13 per kilo it wouldn’t seem mundane to me. That’s about $10 or £5 per pound — although the British are used to horrific prices and may not find this shocking in the least.
Now begins a time when most of my cookery posts depend on classes or chef jobs and I don’t have to eat everything. Time to diet off the pounds gained from quitting smoking. Time to wander the specialty shops and come up with new ways to use the old things and invent dishes with new things. Time to ask about wines and honeys and time to toast nuts and snip herbs and prune the rosemary and the sages.
I think the Romans had it right when they made the year begin with spring. What wrong-headed power monger changed that?
Here is a hint at things to come. [photopress:cocopuffs_pub.jpg,thumb,pp_image]
I\\\’m really looking forward to reading what you cook. The markets here are such an inspiration for seasonal cooking. I often go with no idea what I\\\’m going to cook and devise a menu based on what I find.
PS I love the idea of Popovers/Yorkshire puds for breakfast and so does everyone else in the house!
OMG!!!!!!!!!! i am getting there as fast as i can!!!!! can’t wait to see you & your glorious spring~~
Agretti, gotta have it LOL
it all sounds wonderful. congratulations on your achievement to quit smoking. jon sends a big hello. we think of italy often :)
I agree, the year should definitely begin in spring. Time to start gardening. (By the way, I’d probably let the hens go too.)
I am suffering from “let’s cook everything that’s good!” syndrome. Must pare down. I am getting nauseated before reaching the end of the menu, and that’s just reading.
Beautiful spring, glorious days full of light, delicious food to be had. I love Italy.
Yeah! Italy is the most irritating piece of paradise ever. Impossible not to love her, but impossible not to curse her sometimes. Think not? Say la posta to anyone not a native. The natives are inured, we are not.
Herb lady. So that\’s what they\’re calling the suppliers these days ;)
Harumph! I get no respect at all.