Arugula

Back on May 8th, I posted about how well the arugula was doing at One Love Farm. Here is a link to that post. I harvested a bunch of arugula and enjoyed it in salad, on pizza and in risotto. And, I sold a lot of arugula at the Richmond Farmers' Market. But I still have a bunch left over.

So, in addition to wonderful fresh arugula salad for lunch, I'm also going to make my favorite arugula dish this week.

Just boil some dry penne in salt water. While waiting for the water to boil, mince a couple cloves of garlic in a wooden bowl. Add several handfuls of arugla to the garlic in the bowl. After the pasta has cooked, drain the water and reserve a half cup or so of the pasta water. Add the (very) hot pasta to the bowl and add olive oil. Mix well, allowing the pasta to wilt the arugula and cook the garlic. Add a little of the reserved water to moisten the mixture, if needed. You can top the pasta with grated cheese or cayanne pepper to taste.

Now, if you look carefully at the picture above, you can see some green shoots rising above the arugula leaves. When there is warm weather, the arugula easily bolts. That means the plant is starting to produce seeds. The stalk will erupt in a few days with white flowers. Thoese flowers become a seed pod which will make new arugula plants next year. The thing is, when the arugula goes to seed, the arugula gets even more of its distinctive peppery flavor. If you allow the arugula to go a few more weeks, it will become stonger and bitter. That is why it is good that I harvested all of the arugula to use up this week, before that happens.