Asparagus, fennel, and potato salad with parmesan-tarragon dressing

One of my favorite days of the year happened last weekend - opening day of our local summer farmers' market! It makes me so happy to see the stalls filled with produce and to know that I can look forward to my Saturday morning market trip each week. At last week's market, I picked up a lovely bunch of asparagus, which is a real treat, since asparagus season here is so short. The inspiration for this salad came from The Accidental Vegetarian, and the dressing was inspired by a recipe in The Gourmet Cookbook, although I ended up making several changes to the recipes and putting my own spin on the final dish. This salad has roasted asparagus, fennel, and potatoes on a bed of arugula and watercress. Roasting the vegetables gives them deep flavor, although I'm sure grilling would be great too if you don't feel like turning on the oven. The dressing is very flavorful, with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, garlic, and tarragon (the dressing isn't in the picture though - sorry). I think the tarragon works especially nicely with the fennel in the salad. With the addition of the roasted vegetables, this salad is substantial enough to be a meal on it's own, and if you'd like to add more protein, I think some chopped hard-boiled eggs would be a great addition. 

What are your favorite spring and summer salads?

Italian stuffed mushrooms

Stuffed mushrooms were one of my family's favorite appetizers to serve at parties when I was younger. In fact, stuffed mushrooms was one of the first recipes I really learned to make on my own. So when I was coming up with recipes for my party last weekend, stuffed mushrooms seemed like a perfect choice, especially since many of the guests were vegetarian. I was also glad to have this vegetable-centered dish in the mix along with the selections that involved bread/dough/crackers. When I started searching for a recipe, this Italian stuffed mushrooms recipe on  Epicurious really stood out - it had great reviews, and with fennel, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and basil, I knew it would be full of flavor. Now, there's a fair amount of chopping and grating involved in this recipe, so it isn't something you want to be doing at the last minute before a party. But luckily, you can make the filling and even stuff the mushrooms ahead of time, so all you have to do is pop them in the oven at party o'clock!

Italian stuffed mushrooms
Adapted from Epicurious
Makes about 24 mushrooms

Olive oil
24 oz. white button mushrooms, stems removed and chopped, caps reserved
1/2 cup chopped fresh fennel bulb
1/4 cup chopped drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup coarsely grated Fontina cheese 
1/2 cup coarsely grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup (packed) chopped fresh basil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg, beaten

Place a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 350 deg F. Heat a splash of oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushroom stems, fennel, sun-dried tomatoes, and garlic. Saute until vegetables are tender and much of the water has evaporated from the mushrooms, about 12 minutes. Transfer vegetable mixture to a large bowl and cool for 10 minutes. Stir in grated cheese and basil, and then season filling to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in beaten egg. Mound filling into mushroom caps and place caps in a baking dish (filling side up). Bake until mushrooms are tender, about 25 minutes, and serve immediately.

Note: filling mixture can be made and mushrooms can be stuffed up to one day ahead of baking. Store prepared mushrooms in a covered container in the fridge until ready to bake.

Pasta salad

I'm sure many of you encountered a pasta salad at some point during the 4th of July holiday weekend. Personally, I really, really don't like pasta salads with mayo, and when I saw the mayo-free version over here, I was inspired to create my own. I had also recently made a tuna salad with fennel and olives, and thought that those flavors would work well with pasta. I added some snap peas for extra crunch and cherry tomatoes for summery juiciness, and finished it off with olive oil, lemon juice, and a lot of herbs. This is a great mayo-free pasta salad full of fresh market vegetables. We enjoyed it for dinner yesterday when the weather was too steamy to consider eating a hot meal, and the leftovers made a delicious lunch.

I was originally planning on using white beans for this salad instead of tuna to make it vegetarian, but I happened to be out of white beans - I think the bean version would be just as good as the tuna, so use whichever one you prefer.

Pasta salad
Serves 4 

Feel free to use whatever herbs you like here. I used basil, lemon basil, oregano, and parsley, but many other herbs would work just as well.

1/2 lb pasta (I used medium shells, but any small to medium sized shape should be fine)
1/2 of a large fennel bulb, thinly sliced with pieces cut into 1-inch lengths
20 cherry tomatoes, sliced
15 kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
10 sugar snap peas, sliced crosswise
1 (5 oz.) can tuna or 1 (15.5 oz.) can white beans, such as cannellini
3 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus more if needed
2 large handfuls of herbs, chopped (some suggestions are basil, oregano, lemon basil, mint, parsley, and dill)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil, add pasta, and cook until pasta is al dente. Reserve 1 cup of pasta cooking water, then drain pasta and run under cold water until pasta is no longer warm. Transfer pasta to a large bowl and mix with the remaining ingredients. Add salt, pepper, and more lemon juice to taste. Add pasta water if the salad needs moisture.

Salmon fillet en papillote with julienne vegetables

I got a beautiful piece of wild salmon at the farmers' market yesterday along with my usual pile of vegetables. The ingredients were perfect for this Alton Brown recipe that I've made before and really like. It's really simple - all the ingredients are cooked "en papillote", which means cooked in a packet of parchment paper - and all you have to do is microwave the packets for 4 minutes, which reliably results in a perfectly cooked piece of fish. And with all the vegetables, the recipe gives you a complete (light) meal. I tweaked the recipe a bit based on the ingredients I had around - sugar snap peas instead of snow peaks, no leeks, etc. It's really pretty hard to mess this one up, so feel free to try some variations on the veggies or spices - just stick with crunchy vegetables.