Average dishes aren’t far from being great

Patio and shorts weather sure came early this spring. I was painting lilacs well before the end of April, almost a month ahead of usual. While we can debate what this unseasonable warmth portends for the water bill, at least it’s been an extra-early gardening season. I had my tomato and pepper starts hardened off by the first weekend in May and we were eating baby mesclun salads and lots of spinach even before that.

Cooking and sharing meals with friends is much more fun for me when I can begin including fresh ingredients from the garden again, even if the early pickings are limited. Since painting is a solitary pursuit, after the holidays are over it’s easy for me to pretty much disappear for the next couple of months or so, despite the best efforts of my wife. I think I saw more friends in April than the previous three months combined!

Whether you’re cooking for family or your social calendar is more active now, what I have in mind this month is talking about a couple of kitchen staples that help to enliven many dishes. One reason dinner in a good restaurant tastes better than at home is because they prepare basics that take time that the average home cook might not usually consider—that and the likelihood that you’re probably getting a week’s worth of butter in one meal!

In his hilarious (and profane) memoir, “Kitchen Confidential,” Tony Bourdain lays out a list of ingredients that separates restaurant food from home-prepared, and yes, butter is high on the list. But, demi-glace aside (maybe another time), there are some goodies that are easy to prepare, and good enough that you should consider adding them to your own repertoire. Besides stock (which I introduced in an earlier column), few things are so versatile as roasted garlic and peppers.

I’ve read (and tried) several rather tedious methods of roasting garlic, none of which seem worth it to me. Roasted garlic is good enough, all on its own, that it needs very little embellishment. Just as browning an ingredient totally alters its taste, garlic becomes a completely different critter — sweet, mild, and velvety smooth. Use it in antipasti, of course, to squeeze onto good bread, but it’s also great pureed and added to a dressing, into mashed potatoes, or as a background note in any dish where you’d consider garlic in any form.

So, too, with roasted peppers. Red or yellow peppers have more flavor but even your basic green bell from the store puffs up its chest a bit at this treatment. Again, add it to an appetizer plate, but like the garlic, this is good for all manner of dishes. Sweet and smoky and juicy, it can be chopped or pureed and added to a dressing or dip or soup or salsa — anything that benefits from a bit of grilled flavor.

Here’s a simple preparation for each:

Roasted Garlic

6 heads garlic

Extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Peel away the excess paper from the garlic and cut off the tops. Don’t cut off too much, just enough to expose the cloves. Place in a small ovenproof dish, pour in 1/4 inch or so of water across the bottom, drizzle liberally with a good quality olive oil, and sprinkle with kosher salt to taste.

Cover and cook one hour, basting a time or two. Take the lid off, add more water (if dry) and a little more olive oil, if you like. Roast, uncovered, another 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and check. The cloves should be soft, dark in color, and squeeze easily from their skins. If not quite there, cover and give it another 15 minutes or so; cooking time varies by size of the heads.

Note: Roasted garlic can be refrigerated of use over the next week.

Yield: 6 heads roasted garlic

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate due to recipe variables.

Roasted Bell Peppers

3 large bell peppers

My favorite way of preparing this is simply to hold a pepper with a large kitchen fork, fire up a household propane torch and blacken the pepper all over. Whatever method you use, don’t just blacken, but keep the heat source on the pepper until it starts to soften. If you’re doing a few peppers, placing them under the broiler or on the grill also gives great results, without having to tend constantly.

After roasting, immediately place peppers in a closed paper bag for 15 minutes or so to steam. Scrape off the charred skin, and slice for antipasti or other uses.

Yield: 6 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 22 calories, no fat, .7 grams protein, 5 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 1.6 grams dietary fiber, 1.6 milligrams sodium.

These are such simple preparations that I’d like to give you one more dish, another seasonal salad I came up with recently, very colorful as well as tasty. I can’t wait to try this later on with really good cherry tomatoes from my garden.

Marinated Cherry Tomatoes with Spinach

18 to 24 fresh young garlic greens, about 1/8 -inch diameter (or 2 to 4 cloves minced garlic)

12 ounces cherry tomatoes

Extra virgin olive oil, to taste

1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained

1 tablespoon dried basil (or fresh, minced, if you have it)

About 2 teaspoons sugar, or to taste

Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

2 bunches fresh spinach, trimmed and washed

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Peel away the tough outer layers of the young garlic and trim and discard the leafy parts. Set aside. The young garlic has a mild flavor quite different from mature cloves. Substitute cloves if you have to but this is one of many good reasons to grow your own garlic.

Halve or quarter the tomatoes, place in a shallow bowl, and bruise them with a large spoon to release their juices. Drizzle liberally with a good quality olive oil, add the capers, basil, sugar, salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly. Let sit at room temperature for an hour or so and taste and adjust seasonings.

Meanwhile, trim, wash, and dry the spinach and refrigerate until just before serving.

Heat a large wok to medium high, add a couple of teaspoons of olive oil, and sauté the garlic greens for just a minute or two. Turn the heat off and pour in the liquid from the tomatoes. Let cool a minute and add the spinach and begin turning (your hands work best) until it starts to barely wilt. Be patient, as this will take a few minutes; you want a nice combination of barely wilted leaves and those that remain somewhat firm. Add the tomato mixture, mix thoroughly, and serve with crumbled feta cheese on top.

Yield: 6 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 113 calories, 9 grams fat (2.7 grams saturated, 69 percent fat calories), 3 grams protein, 5.9 grams carbohydrate, 11 milligrams cholesterol, 1.3 grams dietary fiber, 310 milligrams sodium.