Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Early summer salad

"It's June, which means that lots of fresh, slightly mysterious greens -- sweet pea shoots, spicy mizuna, peppery arugula, and chard will be showing up here at Marczyk's and at the farmers' markets," says Barb, who, this week, shares an early summer salad recipe.

"You'll have the best success if your salad is made with only these greens," she advises, warning that combining them with a sturdier leaf lettuce will stomp on them. And while the greens are a bit tricky, mainly because they're delicate and tender, which makes them prone to wilting on the way home from the market, Barb says they can easily be brought back to life by refreshing them in cool water for about fifteen minutes, spinning them dry and storing them in the refrigerator in a plastic bag.

Barb recommends serving the salad with a domaine chupin blanc. "It's 100 percent chenin blanc from France that's a little peachy and a little creamy."

Early Summer Salad

Six generous handfuls (about eight cups) pea shoots, mizuna, arugula and chard
1 fennel bulb, trimmed, cored, and sliced into slivers
1 red pepper, cored and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 flat leaf parsley, washed and picked off the stem
1/2 cup purple basil, washed and picked off stem
1/2 cup roasted and salted pumpkin seeds
1 log smoked Haystack Chevre, sliced into coins

Dressing

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small clove garlic, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
Splash of white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl.

Directions

Toss the greens, fennel, red pepper, carrots, parsley and purple basil together in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the dressing. Divide salad mixture equally on six plates, sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and top with goat cheese coins. Make sure you save some dressing to drizzle on the cheese, too.

For more from Pete, Barbara and Marczyk Fine Foods, visit the market website. And be sure to check out Pete's blog.