Spring Risotto Night Recipes
Rich with comforting flavors, yet bright with spring ingredients, this week’s risotto-themed box is equally fit for a grand feast, or an intimate meal for two. Have fun experimenting in the kitchen with all the provisions for a lovely risotto crafted with our signature chicken stock and topped with imported Parmesan Reggiano and gorgeous vegetables like first-of-the-season asparagus, baby leeks, and carrots. Inside you’ll also find: Gruyère cheese bread, Sauk Farm’s apple cider, locally-crafted pickles, farm-fresh eggs, and beautiful spring greens like Bibb lettuces, arugula and a fresh salad mix. Enjoy!
Here are a few recipe ideas for the week:
Spring Risotto
This bright risotto showcases beautiful spring vegetables and hearty Arborio rice—just remember to keep stirring!
Sautéed Spring Vegetables
Lightly sautéed in butter and kissed with lemon juice, these crisp spring vegetables are wonderful served atop this week’s risotto.
Farro, Arugula & Apple Salad
Bright with radishes, apple and asparagus, this salad is a real stunner.
Herb-Shallot Dressing
This flavor-packed vinaigrette is fantastic with both grains and greens.
Garlic Confit
This mellow confit makes an amazing topping for pizza, pasta and crostini; or try a little dollop atop your risotto!
Farro, Arugula & Apple Salad
Bright with radishes, apple and asparagus, this salad is a real stunner.
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked farro
1 cup sugar snap peas
4 asparagus spears
1 apple, cored and sliced into matchsticks
1 cup packed arugula, microgreens or other summer green of your choice
1 cup thinly sliced radicchio
1 cup thinly sliced radishes
Fresh basil leaves, for garnish
Edible flowers, for garnish
Herb-Shallot Dressing (see recipe)
Method:
1. Preferably while still warm, transfer the farro to a large bowl and toss with ¾ cup of the Herb-Shallot dressing.
2. Bring a small saucepan of salted water to a boil, and fill a medium bowl with ice water. Trim the sugar snap peas and blanch them in the boiling water for 30 seconds, drain, and then immediately plunge them into the ice bath.
3. Snap off the woody ends of the asparagus spears. Use a vegetable peeler to shave the asparagus into long ribbons or, alternatively, cut the spears into smaller pieces on the diagonal. Set aside.
4. Add salad greens and radicchio to the farro in the bowl and toss. Taste for salt and pepper and add more if needed. Transfer the farro mixture to a serving platter or bowl. Top with the snap peas, asparagus, radishes, and apples. Drizzle the remaining dressing over the top of the salad and add more salt and pepper, if desired.
The Italian Spring Recipes
This week’s lineup combines a bevy of fresh spring produce—from verdant greens to vibrant red radishes—with the soulful flavors of Italy, also including smoky, nitrate-free bacon, fresh bucatini pasta, and silky duck eggs that are all begging to star in pasta carbonara for supper (see the enclosed recipe suggestions for that one!). Also including fun Italian-style pantry provisions such as pillowy focaccia bread, farmstead Caciotta cheese and soft amaretti cookies with chocolate, as well as spring daffodils, this box will transport you abroad, all without leaving your very own kitchen. Mangia!
Here are a few recipe ideas for the week:
Duck Egg Carbonara Pasta with Bacon
Creamy and indulgent, simple and satisfying, this classic-style carbonara dish gets an added boost from this week’s silky duck eggs.
Roasted Radishes with Brown Butter & Lemon
The sweet, nutty brown butter here lends a beautiful finishing touch.
Italian Parsley-Caper Vinaigrette
This adaptation of the pungent vinaigrette from Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables is magical drizzled over roasted vegetables or spring greens!
Sweet Onion Confit
This buttery-sweet topping is wonderful in sandwiches or even atop crackers.
Arugula Pesto
Stash this bright, zippy pesto in your freezer to add to the likes of pastas, soups or even roasted vegetables.
Radicchio Salad with Cara Cara & Blood Oranges
This lovely salad from Ina Garten is sure to brighten up even the gloomiest gray day.
Ingredients:
1 cup (2-4) shallots, peeled and thinly sliced into rings, and separated
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 head each of Treviso and Rosalba radicchio, halved, cored and shredded like slaw
8 ounces baby arugula
2 Cara Cara oranges, peeled and sliced into thin half-rounds
2 blood oranges, peeled and sliced into thin half-rounds
⅔ cup pitted Kalamata olives
½ cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ cup olive oil
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
Method:
1. Place the shallots in a small shallow bowl and pour the vinegar over them. Set aside for 10 minutes to macerate.
2. In a large serving bowl, combine both radicchio, the arugula, both oranges and olives. Lift the shallots from the vinegar with a slotted spoon, sprinkle them on the salad, and toss lightly to combine (discard vinegar).
3. In a 1-cup glass measuring cup, whisk together the lemon juice, mustard, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. While whisking, slowly add in the olive oil. Pour enough of the vinaigrette over the salad to moisten well. Sprinkle with an additional pinch of salt, toss well and serve.
