Spring Garlic at the Union Square Greenmarket.
Recipes:
Snap Peas with Pancetta, Young Garlic, and Mint
Cavatelli with Shell Peas, Squid, and Young Garlic
Grilled Trout with Black Olives and Tarragon and Young Garlic Vinaigrette
Chicken Roasted with Limoncello and Young Garlic
Fresh young garlic is absolutely my favorite warm-weather vegetable, and I wait for it all year, dreaming of its fragrance. In early June the first, skinny garlic heads, with their long green stalks, start piling up in stalls at the Union Square Greenmarket. They have a sweet, fresh garlic taste and a juiciness you always guessed garlic must possess at some point in its development. They look almost exactly like scallions. The great thing about them is that you can eat a lot of them without feeling garlicked out. I slice them, stalk and all, and scatter them raw over a salad, something I would never in a million years do with the dry, sharp, garlic I find in the supermarket in the winter. (In fact, often in the dead of winter I forgo garlic altogether, turning to leeks or shallots for that flavor base.) (more…)
Erica De Mane 