Little Bang Theory

I’m an Eatist.

A gourmand, an epicure, a pig.

I love to eat. And I especially love it when the food is fresh, local and FREE.

Which is as fine a reason as any to celebrate the full-throated arrival of Spring, when annuals send up tender shoots for the observant to pluck on their rides home from work, or on their joyous weekend mornings.

Here’s a pasta meal (yes, fresh, in-state made pasta) featuring a couple of items which I forraged on the way home from work today: ramps and fiddleheads!

Now you know, all fern “fiddleheads” are reputed to be edible, but some are much more edible than others. For instance, these tender shoots of interrupted ferns are “edible,”

…but gnoshing on them would doubtless be akin to mackin’ on an Italian’s back. So I Just Say No.

The real fiddleheads are the shoots of ostrich ferns, notable for their dark green color, with a deep groove in the inner surface of their stem. And they’re totally hairless.

So, trying as we all ought to be to get that Italian image out of our minds, here’s tonight’s dinner:

Pasta with roasted garlic, organic shitake mushrooms, fresh-picked wild ramps, some nice clean fiddleheads and a handful of thinly shredded hot capicola, sautéed in olive oil and tossed with grated parmesan cheese:

Enjoy!