I did Incredible Feast this year again.  The event keeps getting better and better.  This year Campagne was teamed up with Stoney Plains farm.  Patrick provided some beautiful vegetables and we served them as bagna cauda.  According to the late Richard Olney, bagna cauda is  “an import from Piedmont, Italy, by way of Nice…” which is now firmly implanted in and embraced by all of Provence.

As with so many dishes from the south of France, bagna cauda is simple and magical all at the same time.  It is basically a traditional vegetable  platter with warm anchovy sauce.

First assemble your favorite fresh vegetables.  I like to cook my green beans, but everything else is great raw. For 4 persons, combine 4 cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt and pound into a paste in a mortar. Add  10 to 15 anchovies, which have been desalted, into a mortar and pound until broken down into small pieces. Transfer paste to small saucepan and ad 2/3 cup of oil and heat gently.  Continue stirring until the anchovies have almost dissolved into the oil.

Adjust seasoning with fresh pepper if desired.  Dip vegetables into warm sauce and voila, you have bagna cauda.

I have been buying lettuce from Brian MacWhorter from close to 13 years.  Brian and his wife own  Butler Green Farms located on Bainbridge Island.

The way I know that the local growing season has started is when Brian calls me from Bainbridge and Merv Dykstra calls me from Yakima.

In addition to the greens we regularly receive from Brian, he also brings extraordinary strawberries, raspberries, fennel, fantastic basil and beautiful tomatoes.  We used Butler Green Farms strawberries this year as the dessert course for our annual Bastille Day prix fixe menu and the dish was sensational.

Here are a couple links with info about Brian’s farm as well as Brian himself.

Cheers,

Daisley

http://www.butlergreenfarms.com/

http://www.soundfood.org/sfcommunity/sflocalfood-/138-butler-green-farms.html

http://www.kitsapsun.com/photos/2010/may/31/111410/?enlarge=1