A pair of ways to celebrate the humble and tangy radish

I don’t remember when I had radishes with unsalted butter and coarse salt for the first time, but I know that it was in France. And, it was the oblong redto-fushia, white-tipped French Breakfast radish that I fell in love with. This often photographed radish is what I think of when I think of French open-air markets. I myself have taken more photos of the radishes in the market than I can count. So, I am thrilled that you can now find them in the United States. If you have a home garden, you can also grow them.

I don’t have a vegetable garden, but I belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture) which essentially means that I get a weekly share of the local farm’s vegetables. So, imagine my delight when my first box contained baby French breakfast radishes. Last summer, they did not have these radishes, so I was doubly excited. I was so thrilled to see the radishes that I ignored everything else in my CSA box and promptly made a “tartine.” A tartine is not a complicated dish. It is simply the French name for open-faced sandwich. Mine was composed solely of the radishes, unsalted butter and my favorite naturally coarse French salt, fleur de sel (flower of salt).

The first time that I experienced the luscious combination of butter, radish and salt was on a slice of the famous brown sourdough bread from Poilane. The toothsome and rustic bread with a sour tang and chewy crust was the perfect canvas for the toppings. The crunchy, slightly hot and spicy radishes tamed by the sweet butter and rounded out by the crystals of pure salt from the fleur de sel was one of the great food moments of my life and left a lasting impression. It is one of those classic food pairings where the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.

You can make a tartine with the more easily available globe radishes or the gorgeous watermelon radish, or a combination of your favorite radishes. You can also serve the radishes with the same garnishes, but without the bread as a nibble with drinks. Truth be told, I do this much more frequently because the tartine also relies on a really nice rustic loaf of bread and I don’t always have that on hand. But I always have good quality unsalted butter and fleur de sel, so this is a pretty, tasty, easy and relatively healthy pre-dinner snack.

ELIZABETH KARMEL VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS This June 3, 2018 photo shows radishes and open-faced radish tartine in Amagansett, N.Y. A tartine is not a complicated dish. It is simply the French name for open-faced sandwich.