Region: Italy
Category: Salads
Season: Spring
Difficulty: Easy but labor intensive
If you have a farmer’s market near you, then you know that for farmers and cooks alike springtime will bring exciting produce to the market for you to start making all kinds of wonderful dishes. Plants grow seasonally, so in the winter when you are finding produce in the supermarket year round, I assure you that the only way they can do that is by importing the food from far away. The longer a fruit or vegetable is out of the ground the less interesting and good tasting it becomes until it finally rots. That’s why supermarket fruits and vegetables are sapid. The more local the food the better it will be. This recipe is the kind of thing I put together when I can’t decide what to do.
Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings
Preparation Time: 1:10 hours
2 artichokes (about 1 pound)
3/4 pound fresh shelled fava beans (from about 4 or 5 pounds of pods)
1/2 pound asparagus, last 1/4 inch cut off, heavy stems peeled
1 bunch arugula, washed and dried well
1 medium tomato (about 5 ounces), cut into sixths
1 large hard-boiled egg, shelled and cut into fifths
15 imported black olives
1/2 cup vinaigrette dressing
1. Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil, then cook the artichokes until easily pierced at the base, through the bracts, with a skewer, 45 to 50 minutes. Drain, cool, then scrape the flesh from the inside of the bracts and set aside for another purpose. Remove the choke from the foundation and trim. Cut the foundation into thin slices.
2. Meanwhile, bring another large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat, then cook the fava beans until their skins are loose enough to pinch off, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the beans with a slotted spoon, peel, and set aside.
3. Cook the asparagus in the same water as the fava beans until tender but not completely soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
4. Arrange the arugula on a large platter to form a bed for the other vegetables. Arrange the asparagus around the sides as a border. Fill the middle with the cooked fava beans. Arrange the artichoke hearts on either end or in the middle as if they were still whole. Arrange the tomato pieces onto the artichoke hearts along with a piece of egg and place the remaining pieces around attractively. Arrange the black olives about and drizzle on the vinaigrette and serve.
Posted: 12/28/2006
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