As summer comes in with a bang – thunderstorms have been daily occurrences since the first day of summer at the end of June – I pay my respects to the last bit of spring on our menu. I’ve talked about fiddlehead ferns in past posts, but since they are such a seasonal treat, I’d like to talk about them again. Fiddleheads are not cultivated so the only way you can experience them is through picking them yourself or purchasing from a farmers market or local forager. Plus I think they are only found in the United States in the northeast, but I could be wrong about this. All of these things make them, I think, even more special. I use them as a vegetable as well as a component in spring pasta dishes. Our farewell batch turned into a lovely light dinner sautéed with some chopped garlic scapes in butter and extra virgin olive oil and then tossed with crumbled ricotta salata in homemade pasta. I already am thinking about what next spring might bring.
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