Summer Seasonals Cuisine

Summer seasonal kitchens. The air is alternately cool and humidly warm from day to day, and the fresh produce at markets in Wisconsin does not tumble vivid and juicy from the aprons of Mother Earth. It rather springs forth, vital and bold, earthy and refreshing from beds of soil carefully nurtured by hard-worked hands and fingers.

The cook desiring to transform these seeming peasant vegetables - chard, radish, spinach, young savory herbs, pole beans - into healthful dishes pleasing to the eye and satisfying to a palate biased toward more gourmet fare, need look little further than the elementals of classic French and Italian cooking.

Simple is good, less *is* more, and as any artist will confide: doing less, elegantly, challenges the artist to reduce multiplex choices into single strokes of concentrated expression.

Moreover, today's cook has less time to prepare! And so this evening, we come to the table to eat:

Chard sauteed in olive oil and garlic, generously seasoned with pepper and tossed with sel gros for texture.
Nestled in the bed of chard is a poached fillet of cod, meaty flakes with their own juices and buttery texture, topped with diced roma tomato concasse and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and champagne vinegar.
Garnished again with more sel gros and shavings of parmesan cheese.

The Italian influence and summer season call for a wine that is as simple and delicious as the meal itself. One of my personal favorites, introduced to me by an Italian businessman in America who longed for a flavor of home:

Canei, a soft, lightly effervescent white wine that is most often used as an aperitif. However, Canei is so eminently drinkable, it rarely lasts long and keeps getting pour after pour during mealtime.

Thank to the recipes contained in Sundays at Moosewood for the Ziti with Chard recipe on page 367, and Jacques Pepin's Chez Jacques cookbook for poached cod with capers and brown butter. Both contained preparation elements that blended in an extraordinarily satisfying manner.