Tuesday, July 21, 2009

What we're eating: Red, white, and green

Sometimes you like a vegetable just for its name.

For example, the French Breakfast radish. It gives me visions of breakfasting at a leisurely hour on a warm crusty baguette, a slice of cheese, and a few fresh radishes while gazing across my cottage porch to endless fields of lavender and planning out my day of wine tasting and a visit to the local farmers market to . . . buy more radishes, of course. This radish is milder than others in flavor, such that I think of it as a child's radish.

But back to reality. Sophie grows these in our garden most of the summer, and one of our favorite ways to enjoy them is in the June issue of Bon Appetit's Green Bean Salad with Radishes and Prosciutto. It also features one of my favorite cheeses these days, Ricotta Salata. It's less aggressive than feta, which I love on salad, and therefore perfect for this salad that has a mix of delicate flavors you would not want to overwhelm. Everything can be prepped well in advance, and the finished salad is fine assembled an hour or so before serving.

We eat it for weeknight dinners.

We eat it for Sunday dinner. And Sophie is happy to take the leftovers in her summer camp lunch.

That's what we're eating over here.

4 comments:

Kate said...

Wow! I love radishes anyway, but will definitely have to try them this way.

Jennifer S said...

This looks so good...might have to try this one.

Feministy said...

We've been getting lots of radishes (French and otherwise) in our farm share and pickling them, along with cucmbers and turnips. They're fantastic!

I think about 1/3 of my diet is now radish-related. I love the summer!

Anonymous said...

I've been reading your blog for a few months and really enjoy it. I am an American living in France, and I never liked radishes until I moved here, where they taste wonderful and mild (food here really does have more flavor than in the U.S.). But I didn't realize until I read your blog that these are a French variety. Anyway, keep up the good work!
Terry