We got back to Providence on Sunday evening, but since I had made a point to use up most of our fresh food before our trip, and since we weren’t around for Saturday’s farmers’ market, we had to make a quick trip to Whole Foods for provisions. I’ve gotten so used to buying the majority of our food at the farmers’ market that I was a little frazzled when we got to the store, but the seafood counter saved the day. I grabbed some sardines for Sunday night’s dinner, and a beautiful whole trout for Monday.

We had hoped to grill the sardines on Sunday night but it was a bit too chilly out, so after Mike cleaned them, I dipped them in a little bit of seasoned flour and fried them. I made a quick stew of fennel and tomatoes, one of my favorite partners for fish of any kind, and our Sunday supper was complete.

Monday’s trout dinner was equally simple: our butterflied trout went into a grill basket rubbed with salt and a bit of olive oil, and Mike took care of cooking it while I worked on sides.

I had spotted some Massachusetts fiddleheads at the store, which I snapped up along with a few gorgeous chanterelles. I sauteed them in butter with thinly sliced spring onion until the mushrooms were a bit caramelized and the fiddleheads were tender, then I spooned them onto our plates with the grilled trout and some boiled, smashed new potatoes. I finished the fish with a spritz of fresh lemon juice and some thin slices of the bright green onion tips, and simple as that, dinner was served.

I’m a little obsessed with bread salads.

A summertime panzanella with ripe, juicy garden tomatoes is truly a thing of beauty, and I think I like the Zuni Café bread salad Mike makes even more than I like the accompanying chicken. Bread salads are so easy to make, so inexpensive, and so versatile that I’m a little surprised that they’re not a year-round, go-to meal.

At least in this household, that’s going to change.

Last night’s version of bread salad was full of wild springtime edibles: some of the ramps Mike brought back from his recent trip to NYC, separated and sautéed in a little olive oil, cubes of Seven Stars durum round added to the oniony oil and toasted until crisp and golden, some fiddleheads from Saturday’s farmers’ market trip, also sautéed just until they turned bright green, and a generous amount of wild rocket, which also made the trip from New York, and which was tossed raw with the warm bread cubes and other veggies.

I dressed everything with my standard Sherry vinaigrette, and topped our plates with toasted pine nuts and shards of Rudie’s Romano, a raw goat milk cheese from Meadow Stone Farm. This was a great combination of flavors and textures, and a fun way to turn a salad into a substantial meal.

I’m a little alarmed that today is already the last day of May, but I love that we are heading full-speed into summer and all its bounty. Our little garden is flourishing, and while early spring treats are on their way out of season, we’ve got many things to look forward to. I’ll admit that I often feel a bit like I’m cheating when preparing meals this time of year, though. When the raw ingredients I’m working with are so fresh and good, I hate to do too much to them, so my “recipes” become very pared down and cooking is more like assembly.

We enjoyed the first fresh wild Copper River salmon of the year last night, and it was absolutely worth waiting for. Gorgeous to look at and richly flavored, this salmon needs little adornment, so Mike just seasoned it with salt and pepper, rubbed it with a bit of olive oil, and grilled it briefly over hot hardwood coals. Once the salmon came off the grill to rest, I sautéed some chopped spring onions, fiddleheads and cut asparagus in a bit of olive oil, and tossed a salad of butter lettuce and tomato with a goat-cheese and buttermilk vinaigrette. I think it actually took longer for Mike to get the grill going than it did for us to put our meal together, but I’m not going to complain – it just gave us more time to savor our food and enjoy the evening.

Wine Pairing: We usually drink Pinot Noir with our salmon, but when Talitha at Vine Wine was suggesting options for me last night, she was very enthusiastic about this Paumanok Riesling and how it would pair with our meal. It’s always fun to switch things up a bit, and as I’ve mentioned, we are definitely interested in trying as many local wines as possible, so I grabbed a bottle. It was a spot-on recommendation – the wine was crisp and minerally, which cut right through the richness of the salmon.