Each season we look forward to the first “garden dinner”, a meal comprised mostly of items from the garden/farm. Last night Matt and I had a partial garden dinner. It’s too early yet to have a full-fledged garden dinner, but this felt pretty darn close.

It started yesterday afternoon with one of my dredded chores…thinning the seedlings. If any of you remember my post about thinning radish seedlings, you know how much I dislike this chore. Unless, of course, we can use the discarded seedlings for something else.

Yesterday I thinned the basil and sorrel. Instead of tossing all the tasty little morsels, I saved them.

On our drive back into town, I clutched my quart-sized bag of micro greens as we discussed our dinner options for the evening. This is what we ended up making and devouring.

Partial Garden Dinner

The base is some homemade bread, similar to a focaccia, from extra pizza dough the night before. The bread is simply toasted and spread with ricotta cheese…seasoned with salt and pepper. We topped the ricotta with sauteed mushrooms, bacon, and parsley. On top of the sautee, we added two soft-boiled farm eggs (Start eggs in cold water, boil 5 minutes, rinse with cold water, and peel immediately.). Finally, we topped everything off with a salad of arugula, basil, sorrel, and shaved Parmesan, tossed with olive oil. Sprinkle the whole thing with a little salt, grating of pepper, and squeeze of lemon.

Local ingredients: bread, parsley, eggs, basil, and sorrel.