Arugula days

Arugula is one of my favorite example vegetables when making a case for local eating. Buy it in a store in say, August and what do you get? Beautifully packaged, perfectly crisp, entirely flavorless greens. Arugula is a coy little garden offering with those delicate little green leaves and a surprising, strongly peppery bite. The flavor is sparkling and zesty but there is also an earthy, mushroom-y note in the background. Not exactly the pallid little grocery store green we can buy packaged up in all that nice plastic after all? No. Arugula has a bit of a temper and prefers the cooler days of Fall and Spring to Summer. We should enjoy it when it is most abundant. And since arugula is not slouch in the flavor department I like to prepare it simply and serve it up with other full bodied ingredients. Say....parmesan, pine nuts and garlic. Arugula does make great pesto. But we can do better than that. If you haven't found a reason to to try baking pizzas outdoors over the coals in your grill allow the promise of a blistery, lightly charred crust and melted goat cheese all topped with a tangle of arugula be the ultimate excuse. Start of with your favorite pizza dough (if anyone is interested just email me, I have a fantastic dough recipe that always yields a crisp, chewy crust). My best advice on pizza dough is rest, rest, rest. After you have divided and shaped your dough into smaller portions, hands off for about fifteen to twenty minutes. If you just dive in with floured hands and immediately start pulling, rolling, stretching... you will end up frustrated at the difficulty of the task and have a tough little pizza on your hands. Just wait and you will find the dough relaxed and ready to practically shape itself. Once shaped and ready for toppings give that perfectly stretched or beautifully lopsided crust a generous turn in a dusting of coarse corn meal to keep to dough from sticking to the live coals. Top the pizza however you like but air on the side of full flavors and fewer ingredients and you won't be disappointed. With arugula, I especially like a handful of walnuts crushed with a clove of garlic, some sliced spring onions a drizzle of olive oil and some chevre. Transfer the pizza carefully from a plate or cutting board directly on top of the screamingly hot, burned down coals and cover the grill with the vents open. A step away for about four minutes. Just long enough to make this salad: Arugula, sprinkle of salt, grind of pepper, splash of balsamic, good slug of olive oil. Toss, toss, toss. Now go get your pizza, a long handled pair of tongs is very useful here. And top it with that gorgeous, simple arugula. And open up that bottle of prosecco languishing in the back of the fridge, arugula has come for dinner.