Fine art fruit.

Photography by Sam Armocido

The first cookbook I ever bought with my own money is titled The Fine Art of Garnishing. It came packaged with 5 small tools which enabled me to turn a radish into a rose, an apple into a bird, and, most importantly, carve a watermelon. For one summer cookout after another, I carved watermelons to serve fruit salad. Family photos reveal watermelons carefully crafted to resemble whales, Viking sailing ships, and baskets.

We’d scoop out the watermelons using a melon baller, and toss the fruit with cantaloupe, honeydew, peaches and berries. While I still love a good fruit salad, there are meals when I want my watermelon dressed a little more elegantly. The savory flavors of bright vinegar, bitter greens and sharp cheese balance delightfully with sugary fruits. They are the perfect companion to anything smoky and charred from the grill.

I suppose, if you’re going to use such sophisticated ingredients, you should probably present them more formally. May I suggest a watermelon?

Watermelon Gorgonzola Salad

Serves 6

Photography by Sam Armocido

Ingredients:

• 6 cups watermelon cut in 1” cubes
• 2 cups baby arugula, loosely packed
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/3 cup Cava Rosé, or other light, red wine vinegar*
• 1 tsp honey
• 2/3 cups olive oil – the good stuff!
• 1 cup chilled, crumbled gorgonzola cheese

*Cava Rosé is a wonderful summer introduction from our friends at Sapore. I paired it with Koroneiko, a light, grassy, Greek olive oil.

Directions:

• Toss together watermelon and arugula in a large bowl.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together shallot, vinegar and honey.
• Whisk olive oil into vinegar mixture to form a thick, creamy emulsion.
• Stir cheese crumbles into vinaigrette and taste with a cube of watermelon.
• Season dressing to taste with additional salt, pepper, vinegar or oil and lightly dress watermelon and arugula.
• If making this ahead, keep the watermelon separate. It will release water which will dilute your dressing and wilt the arugula.

This is how you learn.

Farm Camp at Arcadia
Photography by Gene Buonaccorsi.

“They have farm camp?!” I asked my friend Pamela Hess. “That is the coolest thing ever!”

To my complete delight, she invited me to do a cooking class with the campers at Arcadia, a cool, non-profit farm – where Pamela is the Executive Director – dedicated to reconnecting us with our food and the people who produce it. These kids have spent a week feeding chickens, pulling weeds, harvesting fresh produce and learning how to cook. They already knew amazing recipes like zucchini pasta, fresh salsa, and veggie quesadillas. They even have mad knife skills.

Photography by Gene Buonaccorsi

From the second I arrived they were all over me. “Who are you? How’d you become a chef? What are we cooking?” They uncorked bottles of vinegar and oil knowing instinctually to smell them. When they found something they loved, they immediately shared it with someone else. They asked how we were using each new ingredient and tool that I placed on the table.

We cooked together for just over an hour, far longer than my childhood attention span. We made pan con tomate, and tossed vinaigrettes over zucchini and corn, and arugula, fresh from Arcadia’s farm.

Photography by Gene Buonaccorsi

During Q&A one of the campers asked me how I learned to cook. I talked about the years I spent exploring and practicing in the kitchen, but they didn’t really need an answer from me. When it comes to learning, they are already experts.

Pan con tomate

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 18 slices of baguette, 1/4″ thick, about 1/2 of a baguette
• 1-2 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
• 2 large tomatoes
• Maldon or other flaky sea salt
• Olive oil – the good stuff!

Farm Camp at Arcadia
Photography by Gene Buonaccorsi

Directions:

• Warm your oven to 400 degrees and toasts the bread until crisp and golden on the edges, about 8-10 minutes.
• Rub toasted bread a couple of times with the clove of garlic.
• Cut each tomato in half and grate into pulp using a box grater. If the pulp is really watery, strain through a fine sieve to thicken.
• Spread a teaspoon of pulp over each baguette slice. Sprinkle with salt, drizzle with a drop or three of oil, and serve.

Corn and Zucchini Salad

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 large zucchini cut in a 1/2″ dice
• 4 ears corn, kernels removed
• 1 tbs chopped basil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar – we used Blackberry Balsamic
• 1 tsp honey
• 2/3 cups olive oil – the good stuff!

Directions:

• Mix together zucchini, corn and basil in a large bowl.
• Chop garlic, sprinkle with coarse salt – like sea salt or Kosher salt – and mash into a paste on your cutting board using the flat side of your knife or the tines of a fork.
• Add the garlic to a small bowl with the vinegar and honey. Whisk together.
• While whisking, pour the oil into the vinegar mixture, in a thin stream. Whisk until it forms a thick, creamy emulsion.
• Dress the veggies lightly and serve.

Fresh Arugula Salad

Serves 6

Photography by Gene Buonaccorsi

• 1/2 pound baby arugula
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/3 cup vinegar – we used Pomegranate vinegar
• 1 tsp honey
• 2/3 cups olive oil – the good stuff!

Directions:

• Place the arugula in a large salad bowl.
• Chop garlic, sprinkle with coarse salt – like sea salt or Kosher salt – and mash into a paste on your cutting board using the flat side of your knife or the tines of a fork.
• Add the garlic to a small bowl with the vinegar and honey. Whisk together.
• While whisking, pour the oil into the vinegar mixture, in a thin stream. Whisk until it forms a thick, creamy emulsion.
• Dress the salad lightly, tossing with tongs to coat. A perfectly dressed green salad should just glisten with dressing and there should be almost nothing left in the bottom of the bowl when you’re done serving.

A little American innovation.

Photography by Sam Armocido

Norman Rockwell drew an illustration for the Mass Mutual insurance company titled “Cookout.” As mothers and children set the picnic table, fathers hover around the grill. Nowhere is there any food.

But imagine, give me your very best Family Feud guess as to what will appear on those quintessential American plates.

Burgers, of course, and corn on the cob. What’s on top of those burgers? A single square of cheese melting into the smoky, crevices in the beef patty. Theres a plate of iceberg lettuce available for topping, and if it’s a really good day, mom has fried up some bacon.

This burger, then, is not so far from American tradition. The corn, off-the-cob and tossed with bacon, tops the burger. Baby spinach replaces lettuce and our cheese is upgraded to a far-more-American cheddar. It’s fun, delicious and a little creative.

Maybe that’s why Mr. Rockwell left the plates empty. There’s nothing more American than taking traditions, making some changes, and making them our own.

Corn and Bacon Salsa Burger

Using beef with some fat makes this burger rich and moist. These are big burgers and could certainly be made into 6 smaller patties.

makes 4 large 1/2 pound burgers

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground beef 80% lean
• 4 slices thick cut bacon, minced
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup parsley
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• 1/4 pound cheddar cheese, sliced
• 4 Kaiser rolls
• 1/4 pound baby arugula
• 1 cup Corn and Bacon Salsa (see below)

Directions:

• Mix together ground beef, bacon, eggs, parsley and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper and form into four large patties.
• Heat your grill to medium-high and grill your burgers just off to the side of the coals. These are big patties, so you’ll probably cook them for 5-7 minutes a side for medium rare.
• Place a slice or two of cheese on burgers 1 minute before removing from grill.
• Layer bun bottoms with arugula and burgers. Top each with 1/4 cup corn and bacon salsa and bun top.
• If there’s not juice running down your chin, you’re doing it wrong!

Corn and Bacon Salsa

For a nuttier, toastier flavor, toss corn kernals with 1 tbs olive oil and 1/4 tsp cumin and roast in a 400 degree oven until golden, about 7-10 minutes. Add right before seasoning the salsa. Serve this over grilled, cumin-lime marinated chicken or with chips.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups salsa

Photography by Sam Armocido

Ingredients:

• 5 slices, thick cut bacon
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, minced
• 2 ears corn, kernels removed
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• Sherry  or Roasted Red Pepper Blackberry* vinegar

*Where do you get Roasted Red Pepper Blackberry vinegar? Sapore, of course! You can order online too.

Directions:

• Fry bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until browned on both sides. Remove from pan and dry on paper towels. Leave 2 tbs bacon fat in pan.
• Return heat to medium and add red onion. Cook until softened.
• Add red onion and jalapeño. Sauté 3 additional minutes.
• Add raw corn, increase heat to medium high, and cook for 3-5 minutes until edges of corn turn golden.
• Stir in cilantro, cumin and chili powder. Remove salsa from heat.
• Chop bacon and stir into salsa.
• Season to taste with a splash of vinegar, salt and pepper. Add additional cumin or chili powder as needed.

Toasted Walnut Arugula Pesto The Movie.

When summer’s pesto runs out from the freezer I turn to arugula, which may farmers grow right through the winter in cold frames. I first posted the recipe here.

These are not pictures of arugula walnut pesto.

The pictures shown here are of a wonderful sage, brown butter sauce served over penne with sharp asiago and rich, earthy walnuts. However, I don’t have any pictures to go with this delicious pesto recipe so they’ll have to do. Thank you for your understanding…

Marvin Ogburn from Long Meadow Farm emailed me one Friday morning. “I have A LOT of arugula this week. What can you do with it?” We headed to the kitchen that night and worked on an arugula pesto. Out of several variations we learned that blanching the leaves first removes too much of the arugula flavor, chopping the walnuts before lightly toasting them eliminates the raws taste without burning the outsides, and salt carefully – the cheese already adds a lot. We tested the recipe over pasta, but it was wonderful the next morning, at Eastern Market, over boiled and sliced fingerling potatoes.

*Did you have a copy of Free Stuff for Kids when you were young? It was a list of free things you could send away for. Often they required so many boxtops or SASE’s that no one but a bored child would ever actually send away for them. I remember at least one or two required some small change, usually a couple quarters, to pay for printing of the edifying pamphlet describing banana spiders or the geography of Arkansas that you would receive in return. The instructions always admonished that the coins needed to be securely taped to your request letter. I assumed that not doing so would shame my elders.

While this comment seems totally random, I am going somewhere with it. I really think you should try this recipe in a mortar and pestle. It’s a little more work, but the texture and control over the final product is well worth it. As an incentive, if you give it a try, send me an email at jonathan.bardzik@gmail.com. I will send you a letter of congratulations and two quarters. I’ll make sure they are securely taped.

Arugula and Walnut Pesto

Ingredients:

• 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
• Salt
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 3/4 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese*
• 2 cups arugula (not packed)
• Black pepper
• Olive oil – the good stuff

* Grate the parmesan on the middle side of a box grater. This gives you a nice bite of cheese and doesn’t get too gummy when pounded.

Directions:

This can be made either by hand in a mortar and pestle, or in a food processor.

By hand:

• Add garlic and a pinch of salt to the mortar. Pound garlic into a paste.
• Toast walnuts over low heat in a small fry pan. Watch carefully, nuts burn quickly. they are ready when golden and lightly fragrant.
• Add walnuts to garlic paste and pound until it looks like thick, chunky peanut butter.
• Add the parmesan cheese and pound until incorporated.
• Add the arugula a handful at a time and pound away. Add more when you have room in your mortar.
• Add cracked pepper to taste. Start with 5-6 grinds and go from there.
• Add olive oil to thin and bind. Start with a table spoon. You shouldn’t need more than two.

Note: If your paste gets too thick during pounding, you can add a little olive oil to thin it out.

In a food processor:

• Add garlic, walnuts and cheese to a food processor. Pulse until chopped together. About 4-6 times.
• Add arugula and process until coarsely blended. Keep it rustic as opposed to pureed.
• Remove pesto to a bowl. Stir in pepper, salt and olive oil.