Posts by: Andrew Cohen
“Agrodolce” means “sweet and sour” in Italian, and is usually a reduction of sugar and vinegar applied to something else. Here I use the term loosely in that there is sugar and a balsamic vinegar applied to the fruit. This is an especially nice way to treat early season berries that smell gorgeous but might not have had the time to develop full flavor yet. Use these with plain or vanilla yogurt, make a parfait with layered berries, granola, and yogurt, or use these for topping to pancakes and waffles. Eat as is with cheese such as Gorgonzola or young Pecorino Romano.
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Very simple but satisfying. A little char, cool bits contrasting with warm bits, crunchy and silky. The garlic dressing has the perfume and taste of garlic, but none of the heat. The “Grilled or Creamy” refers to the dressing having two iterations; one where you grill the garlic, the other where you blanch it briefly, then add thick yogurt to the pureé.
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This dish is cooked so it is not soupy, but rather until there is just a bit of liquid left. You can add more vegetables as you wish, and mushrooms and/or sausages turns it into a full dinner for the carnivorous set. I like it next morning heated up with a couple of farm-fresh eggs poached or basted on top.
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This is a simple recipe based on how many lemons you have and the juice yield. I like to make my lemonade with sparkling water. It just makes it seem more special, more grown up, while at the same time it brings out the kid in me. Adding things like mint, lavender, or bitters makes this really special.
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The Salsa Verde for this recipe uses enough olive oil to make it a dressing. If you wish, you can use a creamy orange fennel dressing (See recipe) instead.
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This dressing goes with the Fennel and Radish Salad, among other things.
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Pureeing fennel, leeks, and butternut squash give this soup a rich creamy texture while the absence of cream or other dairy keeps it light and airy. This would even be good as a cold soup on a hot day, or could be used as a sauce for light proteins such as chicken or goat. To use as a sauce, just use less stock to thin it with. Although the recipe looks longish, it really is simple and fairly quick, and does not require a lot of attention.
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This is a light refreshing salad with a peppery quality that could easily double as a topping or side for something like seared pork chops or duck breasts. You want to use pinky-thin sweet carrots for this, and they should be sliced really thinly-a mandolin would be ideal. The carrots are there to offer a sweet contrast to the other vegetables. If you don’t have skinny sweet carrots, skip them and use pine nuts or almonds instead.
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This is one of those really simple dishes that surprises with how much flavor it packs. The kale acts as a foil with its earthy flavor to the fennels sweet, but it has a sweetness of its own that adds depth to the dish. Adding fennel seed and pastis adds even more dimension. Cooking the kale a shorter time gives it a toothsome quality that is a welcome texture with the fennel. Crushing the fennel with your hands seems to make it sweeter and also tenderizes it.
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Maple syrup makes everything taste better it seems, and bacon can improve just about anything (except chocolate, but that’s another story), just as a good balsamic vinegar can. In combination, even those who think they loathe Brussels sprouts may be converted. Here, a small amount of vinegar is used as a contrast, so use the good stuff you have stashed in the back of the cupboard.
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A relative newcomer to the vegetable world, Brussels sprouts have only been around for five hundred years, whereas there are records of cabbages that go back three thousand years. Why the name “Brussels” sprouts? It is thought that they have always grown near Brussels and that they were good, and so they became associated with the area. Thomas Jefferson was an avid farmer, and his are the first records of the vegetable in North America from 1812. Chances are good he brought them here originally.
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So simple, and yet so flavorful. This is one of those things where the whole is so much greater than the parts. Do not try doing this in a food processor. It will simply be a mess. From this basic recipe there are many other directions you can go. Use Meyer lemon and or orange zest. Add lime to it and use cilantro.
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The silky texture of escarole always seems at such odds with its bitter flavor. Adding a little sugar and caramelizing it until on the border of burnt both tames and points out the bitter quality of this vegetable, and the addition of sweet/tart fruit and vinegar made from the fruit amplifies this idea. This dish goes well with meats with mild roast chicken or fatty pork chops with a nice crust for textural contrasts. It would also be a nice complement to kasha with braised mushrooms or even fried eggs.
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Here is a sauce that feels rich in the mouth and has big flavors. The texture of the sauce comes from the squash and onions, and there is no cream in it. This sauce was devised for topping red beets, but it would be fine for fish, chicken, or even pork. It would also be nice on pasta as a fun twist on the classic Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce (see recipe for Pumpkin Ravioli on site). Stuff ravioli with chard and cheese, or add ground turkey or pork, and top with the sauce.
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This is a colorful dish with an interplay of textures and contrasts of flavors to add interest. The sauce is sweet and provides high notes, the cabbage is the mid-range and provides sweet and earthy, where the beets are mostly low range and have earthy notes tinged with a mellow sweetness. The vinegar the beets are drizzled with after roasting adds balance. Be sure to cook the cabbage just long enough render it tender, but still possessing some crunch.
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