Sometimes the sauce makes the dish, and when you find a great one, it is worth having different preparations for the different seasons. We are evoking the spirit of tahini (one of our favourite sauces) with this, but making it with almonds in their skins, which brings a great nuttiness. We serve this at Honey & Smoke with peaches in summer, pears in autumn and sweet potatoes in winter. Spring is reserved for green vegetables and they don’t really work with this almond tahini, so we make a special, luxurious pistachio version instead to drizzle over grilled spring greens, dressed with lots of lime juice.
Spoon this jam onto Belgian endive leaves for near-instant antipasto. If we were in India, this jam would be called a chutney. It's done with an old formula that never lets you down. Brown onion; add vinegar, sugar and wine. Boil them down to a sweet-sour caramel, and blend in fruit.
Ingredients
For some people, the gutsiness of escarole and curly endive can be hard to take in a salad, but cook them into a soup like this one and those same folks will fall in love. Those greens simmered in good broth with a little wine, tomato, pasta and chickpeas are pure Italian home food.
A melon salad is not a typical opening to a meal in Italy.
A special greeting for friends with the purity of a white dipping sauce and the vibrant colors of seasonal vegetables. Gather up the freshest, prettiest vegetables you can find. Arrange them on a shallow basket, a tray lined with fresh greens, or other flat object. Spoon the dip into a pretty bowl and set in the center of the tray. Instead of a bowl, you could hollow out a cabbage and arrange the vegetables around it. Improvise, play, create. Some suggestions for vegetables: