My oldest friend in the world stopped through New York a week before her 30th birthday so I had a BBQ for her. I wanted to make some side dishes using the spring bounty of New York vegetables so I got a bunch of goodies at the Union Square Greenmarket. I picked up some fresh mozzarella from Tonjes Farm Dairy so I headed over to Shushan Hydro Farm to get some of their vine ripened cherry tomatoes and yellow tomatoes. I also got some ramps to make a ramp pesto, and some pea shoots, arugula flowers and broccoli rabe flowers.

I thought making pesto with raw ramps would be too intense so I charred them (2 bunches) lightly in a cast iron saute pan. I just put them in a food processor with some shallots, salt, splash of rice vinegar and half a cup of grapeseed oil.

I arranged the mozzarella (rip them into small, bite size pieces) and tomatoes on a plate and topped each mozzarella piece with some ramp pesto and sunflower seed oil. I then seasoned the whole plate with salt and pepper and then garnished it with the pea shoots, arugula flowers and broccoli rabe flowers.

Simple and delicious farm to table cooking 🙂