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.
Duck Egg Carbonara with Bacon
Creamy and indulgent, simple and satisfying, this classic-style carbonara dish gets an added boost from this week’s silky duck eggs.
Ingredients:
6 ounces thick-cut bacon, about 4-6 slices
1 pound bucatini
4 duck egg yolks, plus 1 duck egg
½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
Method:
1. Cut the bacon into ½ inch pieces. Cook slowly on low heat in a medium skillet until the fat has rendered and the bacon is crisp, but not crumbling. Drain the bacon from the fat and reserve the drippings to use later. Let the bacon cool.
2. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of well-salted boiling water. While pasta is boiling, whisk together the egg and egg yolks in a large mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt, a couple twists of fresh ground black pepper, and the bacon.
3. When the pasta has finished cooking, drain and reserve about ½ cup of the cooking water. Transfer the pasta right away to the bowl of egg mixture. Use a pair of tongs to mix the pasta noodles in with the sauce, turning and scraping the sides of the bowl often. Add 2 tablespoons of the reserved pasta water and 2 tablespoons of the reserved bacon fat and continue to mix.
4. Gradually add in the grated parmesan cheese, mixing well before adding more, until you have used the entire ½ cup amount. Continue adding pasta water as needed until the sauce is creamy and emulsified, just a tablespoon at a time. (If you add too much water, the sauce will become thin and start to pool at the bottom of the bowl. Adding a little bit at a time will help you achieve that perfect luscious sauce without accidentally overdoing it.) Serve while hot. Garnish with a final grating of cheese and twist of black pepper.
Risotto Night Recipes
With rain, hail and even a few snow flurries this past week, winter is still giving us some chilly weather even as it begins to wane. So, warm yourself body and soul this week with a lineup centered around one of our wintertime favorites: cozy risotto crafted from Arborio rice, wild and earthy foraged mushrooms and our signature chicken stock, and finished with white truffle oil, Grana-style cheese and an addictive truffle, salt and cheese blend. Also including Gruyère cheese bread, Tunawerth Greek yogurt and sour cream coffee cake, this box is flush with seasonal produce like Chioggia radicchio, Chantenay carrots, Cipollini onions and Meyer lemons. Enjoy!
Here are a few recipe ideas for the week:
White Truffle & Wild Mushroom Risotto
Creamy and delicious, this recipe is a favorite here at the farm—just remember to stir!
How-To: Reconstitute Dried Mushrooms
Follow these simple steps to reconstitute the beautiful mushrooms for this week’s risotto.
Radicchio & Apple Salad with Garden Herb Vinaigrette
Tart, crunchy and crisp, this salad celebrates the classic combination of apple and radicchio.
Garden Herb Vinaigrette
This flavor-packed vinaigrette is fantastic with both grains and greens.
Honey-Balsamic Roasted Carrots
This slam-dunk recipe from Domenica Marchetti’s The Glorious Vegetables of Italy makes the best of crisp carrots.
Meyer Lemon-Lime Curd
Serve this classic curd from Gourmet magazine alongside slices of this week’s coffee cake for an easy and elegant dessert!
