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For vegetable lovers like me, spring is the best time of year.  Look what I found at my local Whole Foods yesterday.

Fresh garbanzo beans, aka chick peas.  I had never seen them before, so I decided to taste one or two before doing anything else with them.  The soft fuzzy shell popped right open and the gorgeous pale green beans reminded me of popcorn.   They were crisp and sweet, something like fresh fava beans, but without that bitter edge.  I gave some to Charles and he agreed, so we ate some with a the sharp Castelmagno cheese that our friends from Piedmont had brought us last week.  That got us reminiscing about our trip to Piedmont last fall, and the next thing you know we were sipping Clavesana dolcetto as we polished off the cheese and beans.   I never had a chance to cook with them since the whole pile of beans disappeared.  Must get more.

My friend Elizabeth Hellman Minchilli is an author and writes one of my favorite blogs about living, eating and cooking in Rome.  You can find it at www.elizabethminchilliinrome.com.   Recently she wrote a post about getting over her fear of cooking stinging nettles, known as ortica in Italian.  Just the name is enough to scare you, and though I’ve eaten them often in Italy in ravioli and risotto, I have never cooked them because they are not easy to find here, unless you find them growing wild in your garden.  But they turned up at the Union Square Greenmarket the other day, and inspired by Elizabeth’s success, I bought a bunch.  Nettles have been used for millenia as both food and medicine, though of course I was more interested in the former.   There is a lot of good information about  nettles on Wildman Steve Brill’s website at www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Nettle.html.  I don’t know if it was just this variety, but they did not seem to have any stingers.  Wear gloves and a long sleeve shirt when handling them.  Wash them well and pull the leaves off the stems.  Drop the leaves into boiling water, then use them as you would spinach or swiss chard.  The flavor is mild and grassy, though the texture is a bit rough.

Rocket arugula, sometimes called wild arugula, is pointy, crisper and nuttier tasting than the kind with rounded leaves.  My mom used to grow it in our Brooklyn garden long before it became a supermarket item.  I have always been a huge fan of arugula and happily at this time of year I can find big bunches of it at the Migliorini Farm stand at the Greenmarket.   I toss it into chicken soup, or pasta with tomato sauce.  My favorite and easiest way to enjoy it is in a salad tossed with extra virgin olive oil, a tiny bit of fresh lemon juice and slivers of Parmigiano Reggiano.  I don’t know why I was so surprised to find out how good arugula is for you.  I came across this post on nutritionist Dr. Janet Brill’s site http://www.drjanet.com/pages/2011/05/awesome-arugula I was delighted to read that arugula is in the cruciferous vegetable family and full of health benefits, but it’s unfortunate that the writer suggests eating it on a pizza to “make the medicine go down”.  I like it on pizza too, but it is hardly medicine!  I’d better be careful not to overdose.

This week, I did something a little different.  I sauteed the arugula in olive oil with garlic and a bit of hot pepper and piled it on some toasted bread.  We had that with roasted local asparagus and fried eggs.

I had the best time yesterday.  Some friends from the Clavesana Winery in Piedmont in Northern Italy were in town, and we decided to have a few people in to taste some of their wines.   There were 4 variations on Dolcetto, red wines made from the local dolcetto variety of grapes.  These wines go with a wide variety of foods and are well priced.  Problem was, I had had a really busy week and not much time to prepare.  So Charles and I decided to keep it simple.

First we had an assortment of salumi.  There was coppa made from pork shoulder; lardo and pancetta, both made from the belly; and hard and soft salami.   Then we had an assortment of Piemontese cheeses, including 2 kinds of robiola–one with 3 milks: goat, sheep and cow–and the other with 2 milks: sheep and cow.  Both were creamy and mushroomy with a soft texture like brie.  There was Testun made from cow and goat’s milk and aged in the must (the squeezed out grapes) used to make Barolo wine; Braciuk, similar to Testun but not as aged and made only from cow’s milk; Castelmagno DOP a firm, sharp cow’s milk cheese; Bra Duro Stravecchio, an “extra-old” cow’s milk cheese aged a minimum of 1 year;  and Toma Piemonte, an unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese aged 60 days.

Some fresh fava beans in the shell went great with the sharp cheeses, plus we had breadsticks, bread and a platter of fresh fruit and raw vegetables.  I cooked only one thing: a homestyle pan pizza, a recipe from my book Pizza Anyway You Slice It. It’s a good pizza for a party because it makes a large pie, tastes good hot or cold, and cuts into neat slices so it’s easy to eat.  In fact, I just reheated some in the toaster oven for lunch today. It crisped up nicely and still tasted great.

The pizzas were a big hit and everybody loved trying the different cheeses, salumi with the wine.  The improbably named D’OH (long story, but makes sense when they explain it) was the lightest, a very easy to drink red that we will enjoy with summer meals like grilled tuna.  Then there was the Dolcetto di Dogliani 2009, which was  a bit richer — a perfect wine with roast chicken.  Il Clou, with more body still, would be good grilled sausages or chops.  Finally there was the 174 Dolcetto di Dogliani, a wine made with grapes from a single vineyard.  This wine has big flavors and will only improve with age.

For dessert, we had Nocciolina, a crackly-topped hazelnut sponge cake that Anna had managed to carry to New York intact all the way from Piedmont.  The region is famous for its superb hazelnuts and the simple, nutty cake was a delicious treat with a cup of coffee.

Thanks to Anna, Tessa, Mario and Marinella for taking time out from their busy travel schedule to visit us.  As they say in Piedmont,

Join me on Tuesday April 19 at 3:00 PM on the Living Today Show on Martha Stewart Sirius XM Radio for a conversation with Valerie Smaldone.

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, I learned the proper Irish way to eat butter.  According to Molly O’Loughlin of the Irish Dairy Board, the way to do it in Ireland is to scrape a knife across the surface to create a soft, creamy wave to spread on bread.  Who knew?   To make the scraping and spreading easier Kerrygold, a cooperative comprised of small Irish dairy farmers, is introducing a specially formulated easy spreading butter packaged in a small tub.  Even straight out of the refrigerator, this butter will always be spreadable.  (Not that I need to make it easier for me to eat more Kerrygold butter, which I confess to being somewhat addicted to.)  The really good news is that Kerrygold Naturally Soft Pure Irish Butter is 100% butter, with no additives.  The butter’s softness comes from the milk that cows produce during the summer months that has a naturally softer milkfat.

The spreadable butter was introduced this morning at a breakfast along with another new Kerrygold butter that has 25% less fat and 50% less sodium made without artificial ingredients.  For me the flavor is all important, and like the spreadable butter, the reduced fat Kerrygold delivered on that score as well.  Light and creamy, the flavor that reminded me of whipped cream and it melted easily in my mouth.  The spreadable butter was deeper and richer in flavor with a satin smooth texture.   Both will be available in stores this summer.

Putting a fresh new spin on the classic Irish breakfast was chef Neven Maguire, of MacNean House and Restaurant in Blacklion, County Cavan, Ireland.  The charming young chef is quite a star in Ireland where his hotel and restaurant have received numerous awards and he appears regularly on tv.  His menu began with a real eye-opener:  Blacklion Porridge with Irish Mist, Honey and Cream.  I usually need a cappuccino or two to get me moving in the morning, but I can see how the Irish Mist might have a stimulating effect as well, if one were so inclined.   Me, I would be happy with a couple of the chef’s buttery Lemon and Sultana Scones, generously smeared with that Kerrygold butter.

The chef also prepared Warm Herb Pancakes with Smoked Irish Salmon and Citrus Creme Fraiche, Spring Onion Soad Bread, Multi Seed Wheaten Bread and my favorite Smoked Bacon and Dubliner Cheese Frittata.  Dubliner is a cheddar-like cheese made by Kerrygold with a sweet and nutty flavor.   For more information about Kerrygold and some great looking recipes, go to http://www.kerrygold.com/usa/index.php

This fall, join Charles and me aboard the beautiful Crystal SERENITY for a 12 day cruise from Athens, Greece to Istanbul, Turkey.  The Crystal Serenity has been voted the number one cruise ship in the world by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler.  As part of Crystal’s Wine & Food Festival Theme cruises, there will be cooking classes and wine tastings on board in addition to sightseeing, relaxing and having a great time together!

For more information about this cruise, go to http://www.crystalcruises.com/VoyageDetail.aspx?CID=1322&RK=MED

Last night, I taught a cooking class at Eataly, the new market and restaurant complex owned by Lidia and Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali. Since I spend most of my time working on my books and articles, it’s a treat for me to get out to teach, so I was delighted when Lidia invited me.

I love having the opportunity to meet new people, sharing what I have learned and finding out what the students want to know as far as cooking is concerned.  Their questions and thoughts on food get me thinking in new directions.  I always say, I learn so much from my students!  In between preparing the recipes for Capri Lemon Meatballs, Parmesan Walnut Wafers, Farinata, and Tuscan Salsa Rustica with crudites, some good questions came up and we had a lot of fun.

Here’s the recipe for the Parmesan Walnut Wafers.  I like to bake and serve half the dough, and freeze the rest for another time.  Baked, the wafers keep in a sealed container for a week.  Serve them with a glass of wine for a starter, or with salad or soup.

Parmesan Walnut Wafers

Makes 48

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

4 ounces freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into bits

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and finely chopped

About 2 tablespoons milk

1 large egg

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cheese, and salt. With a pastry blender or a fork, blend in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the nuts.

2. In a small bowl, beat together the milk and egg. Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Add more milk, a teaspoon or so at a time, if needed to moisten the dough. Squeeze the dough together and form it into a ball.

3. Cut the dough into two equal pieces. Shape each piece into a 7-inch log and place each on a sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap tightly and refrigerate until firm, 4 hours up to overnight.

4. Place a rack in the center of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 400°F. Butter two large baking sheets.

5. Cut the logs into 1/4-inch slices and arrange the slices 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the biscuits are lightly browned around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool. Serve at room temperature. Store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.

Copyright 2004 by Michele Scicolone 1,000 Italian Recipes