THIS MAKE-AHEAD, EASY BRUNCH
No matter what’s going on outside, by the this time of year, it can be pretty much spring in the kitchen.
It’ll probably be a few weeks until the season’s produce trickles in, but this shouldn’t stop you from making a meal that feels jubilantly of the moment.
The recipes here — you could call it an Italianesque brunch or a shotgun celebration of spring — don’t rely on the farmers market, but call on color, texture, baconoffsets and frozen peas to conjure the season we’ve been so patiently waiting for.
Each part is most delicious eaten at or above room temperature, so — rather conveniently — the meal can be prepared in advance. Make this menu before the sun draws you outside.
Its centerpiece is a lavishly tender, pastel-green frittata filled with pea purée, mint and ricotta. But it’s not a frittata as you know it. It’s neither health food nor the flat, rubbery result of quickly rounded up leftovers — quite the opposite! It’s a tall, quivering custard, cooked ever-soslowly and mosaicked with mint leaves. Its wobbly texture manifests the giddy vulnerability of spring.
It’s not something to eat straight from the oven. Undercooked by a hair, the heat trapped in the custard will carry it over to that perfect state of just-cooked as it cools. I like to put it out on the table, tucked under a clean dishcloth, so it’s ready and waiting for a casual reveal when we’re ready to eat.
It goes with a snap pea and bacon salad for sweetness and crunch. A vinaigrette whisked with the warm, rendered bacon fat
gives a savory contrast that makes all green things taste greener. This is a salad to evolve as the season does: Add slivered asparagus, favas or English peas — even their shoots — as they arrive; leave out the bacon if you don’t need it to make things taste sweet and new.
And for dessert, it’s worth steering clear of anything eggy or sliced. A lemon, polenta and rosemary cookie is an ideal foil to our soft and crisp start, and is most chewy and fragrant after it cools. If there was such a thing as a spring cookie, this would be it. It is pale yellow and brightly flavored, easy to grab as you head outside, officially closing the door on winter.
Yield: 12 large cookies
Total time: 1 hour
These cookies have an Italian-inspired taste and an American texture. The flavors of lemon, polenta and rosemary may remind you of biscotti, or a lemon-polenta cake, but the cookies are as crisp-edged and chewy-centered as they come. The recipe uses Sarah Kieffer’s pan-banging technique, which requires quite a specific dough-ball size and wide spacing on the sheet pan to work. Make sure each round of dough is 3 ounces, and don’t bake more than four balls on one pan. These giant cookies are even better when they’ve cooled slightly — they become chewier and the rosemary emerges.
4 teaspoons finely chopped
fresh rosemary
Juice of 1⁄2 lemon (about 11⁄2 tablespoons), plus zest of 4 lemons
11⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal, preferably medium-grind for polenta
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) or 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 cup unsalted butter, at
room temperature
11⁄2 cups granulated sugar,
plus 1/4 cup for coating 1 large egg
Heat oven to 350 degrees with a rack in the center. Line 2 or 3 sheet pans with parchment paper. The cookies are baked in 3 batches because they spread dramatically, but the first sheet pan can be reused after it’s cooled if you don’t have a second or third.
Place the rosemary in your smallest bowl and squeeze over the lemon juice to prevent the rosemary from browning.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter on medium speed until it’s creamy, about 1 minute. (You can also do this by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon.) Add 11⁄2 cups sugar and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the egg, lemon zest and rosemary mixture and combine on low speed. Add the flour and mix on low speed until just combined. If the dough is very soft, refrigerate it for 15 minutes to firm up. Divide the dough into 12 even pieces, form into balls, then roll each one in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Space 3 or 4 cookies an equal distance apart on each sheet pan.
Bake each pan 1 at a time on the center rack. When the dough has spread and puffed in the center, after 8 minutes, lift one side of the sheet pan up about 4 inches and drop it so it bangs against the oven rack, then rotate the pan and lift and drop again. You will see the dough ripple as it falls. Continue to bake until the edges are golden brown but the centers remain pale and fudgy, 6 to 8 minutes longer.
Remove the pan from the oven and let the cookies cool for 5 to10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
sprinkling 5 teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) or 21⁄2 teaspoons fine salt
3/4 cup whole milk
ricotta
Black pepper 1
2peas
11⁄2 packed cups mint
leaves
10 large eggs
11⁄2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (4 ounces), plus extra for
Heat oven to 300 degrees with a rack in the middle. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep). Scrunch up a large sheet of parchment paper and flatten and press it into the bottom and up the sides of the pan to line it.
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil, drop the peas in and cook until they’re tender, about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup mint to the peas, boil for about a minute more, then drain.
Place two-thirds of the pea mixture in a food processor and blitz until smooth, scraping the bowl as needed to form a purée.
In a large bowl, combine the eggs, heavy cream, Parmesan and salt, and whisk. Whisk in the pea purée. Pour the egg mixture into the lined cake pan.
Using a small spoon, dollop the ricotta around the egg mixture. Evenly sprinkle the reserved one-third of the pea mixture over the top, and follow with a generous grind of black pepper. Scatter the remaining 1⁄2 cup mint leaves across the surface and sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Drizzle with olive oil.
Bake until the center is no longer molten below the surface, about 1 hour, 25 minutes. When you hold the edge of the pan and jiggle it, the middle should not move like liquid. The frittata will continue cooking as it cools, so err bravely on the side of underbaking; the end result should not feel tight or solid.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before holding opposite sides of the parchment lining and lifting to transfer the frittata to a serving plate. Slice and eat with more Parmesan grated on top.