Everyone loves Summer, us included, but on these cooler, wetter days of Spring we find plenty to love! And, Green is the new Green, folks!
Check out these Spring centerfolds from one of our favorite farmers: County Line Harvest!
This is the beautiful, the dainty, the lovely Broccoli di Ciccio. It is less astringent than the broccoli available in the supermarket. It has a sweet, nutty flavor that is wonderful cooked & raw. We pair it with Calabrian chilies, oil-cured olives, and fresh goat cheese. The heat from the chilies, the saltiness from the olives and the brinyness from chevre enhance the verdant flavor of the broccoli.
Be careful with this next one!
These are stinging nettles, yep, the kind you can find on riverbanks all over Northern California. The difference is that these are picked when young so they are tender, not stringy and harsh. When you handle them, you will still get stung unless you use tongs. We toss the nettles with a little olive oil, red wine vinegar, red onion and put on the pizza with our housemade garlic sausage and some parmesan! Doesn’t even need tomato sauce!
One of our favorite shades of green:
Rucola!
The crisp, peppery, lemony green (likely from the mustard family) we adore! Also called wild arugula, this is a staple in the Italian kitchen. It is better raw, added as a finishing touch, not cooked. You want the fresh flavor of these delicate leaves! We finish pizzas with rucola all year – find it on our Figlet in Summer!. In Spring it is the perfect accompaniment to our pizza with salty-sweet Smithfield ham, tangy tomato sauce, creamy fontina, and spring onions.
The king of all spinach…
Bloomsdale is the spinach to convert spinach-haters! It doesn’t leave that pithy mouthfeel that many other spinach varieties leave. It is lovely raw and cooked. We use it on our popular Spinach pizza (with tomato sauce, mozzarella and a little feta for added fat and salt). C’mon, it’s the good fat here! The Spinach Pizza is always available at the Ferry Plaza farmer’s market as well as the Fairfax market in the summer. Come convert with us!
Also on our pick-list for Spring but not photographed: green garlic from Capay Farms, Asparagus from the Delta, Spring onions from Star Route farms, and fresh goats milk cheese from Achadinha Goat Cheese Company. All of these farms can be found at the farmers markets in Marin, SF, and Sonoma.
Come to one of those farmer’s markets to see how we pair all these amazing Spring time products! See our website www.pizzapolitana.com to locate us.
