Mizuna

Crisp-skinned fish isn’t about high heat.

Rye berries are sold with their hull intact, which means they’ll take a bit longer to cook than other grains but will reward your patience with al-dente chewy nuttiness.

Local chefs run off with all the fancy lettuces at your farmers’ market? Not to worry. The herbed avocado base of this dish will elevate even the most basic supermarket greens.

“Don’t try this with iceberg,” advises Roberta’s chef Carlo Mirarchi. Flavorful, robust lettuces work best, allowing you to get grill marks on one side while the rest wilts.

Mâche, the sweet, tender lettuce that’s been popular in France since the 1700s, is increasingly easier to find at specialty grocers and farmers’ markets. Mizuna and baby arugula are just as delicious with these golden, crackling shallots.

Pickled nectarine cuts the rich, creamy burrata in this bright summertime salad.

Bitter mizuna leaves work excellently with this vegetarian stir-fry.

I love using baby carrots in assorted colors. Thumbelina carrots, which are little and stubby, are great for roasting. I use red, orange, yellow, and white carrots for the ribbons, which make this salad so vibrant. Even just the orange variety next to the green of the avocado and mizuna makes a beautiful and colorful salad. Toasting whole cumin seeds and then grinding them in a mortar and pestle or an electric spice grinder is essential for the great taste of this vinaigrette. If you don't have either way of grinding spices, you can substitute cumin powder. This salad rocks from the contrast between the soft texture and caramelized sweetness of the roasted carrots and their raw and crunchy counterparts.

Serve this soup Asian-style. Slurp the noodles from the broth with chopsticks, then use an Asian soup spoon to scoop up what’s left. This simple soup comes together in less than 30 minutes.

We used strongly flavored wild greens because a mild salad would get lost with the rest of the menu. The dressing is a simple and classic vinaigrette.

Although we used Asian greens and radish sprouts for our salad, we encourage you to explore your local farmers market and use whatever small young greens (baby spinach, arugula, or watercress, for example) and other fresh goodies you find.

Tatsoi, mizuna, and pea shoots are available at Asian markets as well as at some specialty foods shops and farmers markets. If you have trouble finding any of these greens, packaged organic baby Asian salad mix (such as Earthbound Farm brand) is an excellent substitute and can be found at most supermarkets. (Buy three 5-ounce packages.)