Erica De Mane

Tristar strawberries at the Union Square Greenmarket.

Recipes:

Strawberry and Watercress Salad with Pine Nuts and Chives
Strawberry Salad with Goat Cheese, Black Olives, and Basil
Frittata with Strawberries and Ricotta

I’ve enjoyed many highs, both natural and wine-induced, in Rome, my favorite city in the world. Culinary adventure has for many years been at the center of my life, and I try to scrape enough funds together to go back to Italy as often as I can. I’ve had the great fortune to be in Rome in the Spring when their fragoline di bosco, little strawberries cultivated from a wild variety, are in season. We stay at a hotel in the Aventino, one of the hills just outside downtown. Down the hill, in the Testaccio neighborhood, there’s a family-style trattoria with a boho edge to it called Cestia that I love. It’s right near the Protestant Cemetery, where John Keats and Gregory Corso are buried, and very close to the Pyramid of Cestius, built in 30 B.C. (hence the name of the restaurant), a still shockingly out-of-place structure even after I’ve gaped at it for many years.

Cestia was the first place I ever ate those strawberries, and I was really impressed. I saw the little bowls of them being delivered to various tables. A man who looked exactly like Salvador Dali ate three bowls, so I knew I had to get some (it definitely wasn’t Dali, though; he was already dead). They were tiny tiny ( some as small as peanuts), very deep red, and ridiculously sweet, with an almost phony, candy taste (but in a good way). They were served doused with lemon juice. I don’t know if this is just the quirky Roman love of sweet and sour, but it made for an amazing taste experience, a touch sour but, thanks to the high sugar content in the berries, still very sweet. They can also be tossed with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, but lemon seems to me a perfect match. A bowl of these strawberries eaten in the shadow of that weird pyramid, along with a few glasses of prosecco, gets me as high as I ever should be.

Several varieties of little, sweet strawberries that remind me of the Roman fragoline di bosco show up mid-summer at the Union Square Greenmarket. The ones I often find go by the names Tristar and Mara des bois. They are not as tiny as the Italian ones, but they can be startling sweet. They are what is known as day-neutral (i.e., not dependent on the length of daylight) cultivars and bear small yields of fruit throughout the growing season up until the first frost, unlike June-bearing strawberries, which yield one large crop per season.

When these beautiful strawberries start showing up in the market, I serve them in every way I can imagine, tending toward adding savory or acid elements instead of piling on more sweetness. I’ve found that they go very well with a gentle vinaigrette made with a touch of lemon and fruity olive oil. Herbs such as tarragon, basil, and mint complement their flavor well, and so do gentle oniony tastes like chives and scallions.

Strawberry and Watercress Salad with Pine Nuts and Chives

(Serves 4)

2 large bunches of watercress
About 3 dozen small strawberries, hulled
About 10 chives, chopped
1/2 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon Spanish sherry vinegar
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A few gratings of nutmeg
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon walnut oil (or just use another tablespoon of olive oil)

Place all the salad ingredients in a medium salad bowl. In another small bowl whisk together all the dressing ingredients. Make sure you’ve added enough salt to balance it out. Pour the dressing on the salad, divide it up onto four salad plates, and serve right away. Soft, creamy goat cheese or ricotta is a perfect match, especially when you add a few gratings of fresh black pepper.

Strawberry Salad with Goat Cheese, Black Olives, and Basil

(Serves 4)

1 large head frisée lettuce, cut into bite-size pieces
About 3 dozen small strawberries, hulled
1/2 cup small black olives, such as Niçoise, pitted
A handful of basil leaves, cut into thin strips, plus 4 nice-looking whole sprigs for garnish
4 2-ounce Crottin goat cheeses (small round French goat-cheese disks)

For the vinaigrette:

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
A pinch of sugar
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 small garlic clove, peeled and lightly crushed
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat the broiler.

In a large salad bowl, combine the frisée, strawberries, olives, and basil. Set out 4 small salad plates

In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the vinaigrette until well blended.

Place the Crottins on a small sheet pan and set them under the broiler, about 4 inches from the heat source, until they’ve softened and are very lightly browned on top, about 3 minutes.

Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss. Divide the salad up onto the 4 plates and place a Crottin in the middle of each. Garnish with basil sprigs, and serve right away.

Frittata with Strawberries and Ricotta

This is both a good dessert for a formal dinner and a pleasant brunch dish. I’ve also served wedges of it an antipasto, with glasses of prosecco or champagne.

(Makes two 8-inch frittatas, enough for 4 to 6 as an antipasto, 2 as a brunch or lunch dish, or 4 as a dessert)

4 large eggs
A dozen or so wild spring strawberries, or about half as many regular-size ones, hulled and sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons ricotta
A few sprigs of lemon verbena, the leaves chopped, plus a few whole sprigs for garnish
A pinch of grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
A pinch of salt
A few gratings of black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil

Place the eggs in a small bowl and whisk lightly to blend. Add all the other ingredients except for the olive oil.

Place an 8-inch skillet on medium flame and let it sit a few seconds. Add enough olive oil to coat the skillet well, and when hot, add half the egg mixture, shaking the pan to let it spread out to cover the skillet bottom. Let it cook undisturbed until you can see that it has started to brown at the edges, about a minute. Shake the skillet to see if the frittata moves easily; if not, let it cook a few seconds longer. When the frittata is browned, unstuck, and fairly firm on top, flip it, or invert it onto a plate and then slide it, cooked side up, back onto the skillet. Cook the other side until it is lightly browned, about a minute or so longer.

When the frittata is cooked, slide it out onto an individual serving plate, and keep it warm while making the other frittata.