No matter what’s going on outside, by the end of March, 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 Italian-esque Easter brunch or a shotgun celebration of spring — don’t rely on the farmers’ market, but call on color, texture, bacon-offsets 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 — they can be prepared in advance. Make this menu before you referee an egg hunt or 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-so-slowly and mosaicked with mint leaves. Its wobbly texture manifests the giddy vulnerability of spring and is dramatic enough to replace ham or lamb.
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. This 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’s pale yellow and brightly flavored, easy to grab as you head outside, officially closing the door on winter.
