Food

CARBONIFEROUS CARBONARA & OTHER PREHISTORIC SPRINGTIME SUPPERS

Some things we eat are inherently magical. While every sprouted seed touts a bit of magic, the first fruits of spring have extra powers. This is the first life to poke through the frost, the emergent triumphs over winter. Buds swelling free of their husks. Spores pushing up fungi and unfurling fronds, we can watch them grow if we are quiet, still, and focused.

(Photo: Davey Jane)

The earliest local springtime harvests happen to yield our most ancient vegetables: fern fiddleheads. To help our tongues shake off their heavy winter palate, we celebrate the vernal equinox with the tightly curled baby fronds of the prehistoric ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris). Fiddlehead ferns have been unfurling for more than 360 million springs. Fiddleheads were tender dinosaur treats, as fossils from the Carboniferous era indicate.

(Photo: Macrophile)

Fiddleheads evoke asparagus in flavor. Both taste like April. Green, crisp, and tender. They love lemon and butter. They draw damp umami combinations together. Steamed or sauteed, they twirl together beautifully with fettuccine in a pasta pas de deux. With a nod to fiddlehead heritage and a treasured basket of springtime flavors, we conjured Carboniferous Carbonara.

(Photo: Shira)

Carboniferous Carbonara

1 pound duck bacon, diced into 1-inch pieces
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 eggs, at room temperature
½ cup heavy cream, at room temperature
Pinch of saffron threads
1 ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 pounds fresh fettuccine
1 pound fresh fiddleheads
White truffle oil
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions

Add saffron threads to cream in a small pot and heat to simmer. Remove from heat. Set aside to steep and cool down.

In a large pot, boil 6 quarts of salted boiling water. Blanche fiddleheads in water, cooking 3-5 minutes until crisp tender. Drain fiddleheads, saving all of the boiling water in the pot. Shock fiddleheads by plunging them into a bowl of ice water to retain their vibrant color and ever-so-slightly unfurl. Drain well and set aside.

(Photo: Shira)

Saute duck bacon in a large pan until crispy, about 3 minutes. Add fiddleheads to the pan and saute for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and cream. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in Parmesan, reserving 2 tablespoons for garnish.

Add pasta and cook until al dente, about 2-3 minutes. Drain pasta in a colander, saving about ½ cup of the pasta cooking water. While the pasta is still hot, add it to the pan, together with duck bacon and its renderings and mix quickly and well. Quickly add the cream mixture and coat the pasta completely. Speed is important so the heat from the pasta cooks the sauce. If sauce is too thick or tight, add a little of the reserved hot pasta water to loosen it, enrobing the fettuccine strands. Add remaining Parmesan, drizzle with truffle oil to taste. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. If you happen to have a spare white truffle lying around, shave it on top for an over-the-top dive into spring.

Serves 4-6.

(Photo: Shira)

While its earliest fossil clocks in at a mere seven million years old, Miocene wonder trout pairs well with fiddleheads. We whipped up Spring Fling Trout, for a fiddlehead recipe contest entry on Food52.

Spring Fling Trout

2 whole brook trout, cleaned, scaled
2 egg whites
½ cup almond meal (finely ground almonds)
2 large stalks of rhubarb (or 4 small stalks), cut into fine 2" long julienne
1 bunch spring onions or scallions, whites and greens, cut into fine 2" long julienne
8 ounces fiddleheads
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
2 ½ tablespoons good quality butter
¼ cup vermouth
½ cup heavy cream

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add spring onion julienne and saute for 1 minute. Add rhubarb and saute an additional 1 minute. Remove from pan. Add ½ tablespoon butter to pan, add fiddleheads and saute for an additional minute. Remove from pan and keep separate. All veggies should be crisp tender. Remove from pan.

Mix together almond meal and a pinch of salt in a dish. Put egg whites in another dish. Dip trout in egg whites then roll trout in flour mixture to coat.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in same skillet over medium high heat. Add thyme leaves. Add trout and saute until first side is crispy, then flip over to crisp the other side (about 2 minutes on each side for small trout). Remove trout from pan and set aside (tent with foil to keep warm).

Deglaze pan with vermouth. Add zest. Add cream and reduce until slightly thickened. Add ½ of the onion rhubarb mixture back into pan and toss to coat in sauce.

Fillet each trout, carefully check for bone booby traps. Place two fillets on each plate. Spoon creamed veggies onto platter, top with trout fillets, then spoon the remaining rhubarb and onions (uncreamed) over the trout. Surround platter with fiddleheads, and serve. Recipe can be easily multiplied so more people can have a spring fling. Put a bunch of daffodils in a vase on your table and enjoy!

Serves 4.