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" A taste of spring food-and-drink pairings from our latest edition of the Big Black Book. Today only: Subscribe to Esquire for as low as $8 annually, and get The Big Black Book as a bonus. Michael White, Marea Ristorante, New York City When you start out working in a kitchen, as I did in Italy, usually it&amp;#039;s in the garde-manger section, where you make all the cold appetizers. This dish was one of the first things I learned how to make there. It&amp;#039;s what we call assagino, a dish to whet a person&amp;#039;s appetite. I would always make a little more than I had to and snack on the leftovers out of a cup, until I inevitably got in trouble. The impulse with asparagus is to cook it, but this dish is very much inspired by fresh, young, tender vegetables harvested at their peak \u2014 this Italian concept of materia prima, or raw materials. It seems extremely simple, but there&amp;#039;s some preparation involved. For one thing, you have to go out and get all of these vegetables. And when you&amp;#039;re putting them in, you want to make sure that you have the right quantity of each. Too much of one thing and you&amp;#039;ll mess it up. This salad goes great with an Aperol spritz: Aperol, prosecco, and a little club soda. When it&amp;#039;s the right temperature outside, they go down fantastically. Tuscan Spring Salad   1 head Bibb lettuce (about 1 1/4 pounds), washed, trimmed, dried and torn into bite-sized pieces 1 large Belgian endive, trimmed at the root and separated into spears 1 fennel bulb, very thinly sliced 1/2 cup fresh green peas 1/2 cup fava beans, peeled and shucked  6 asparagus spears, shaved 3/4 cup diced young pecorino (you can substitute parmigiano if necessary) 1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved\u2028 1 small bunch radishes, washed, dried, and thinly sliced 1 cup (loosely packed) fresh herbs, such as basil leaves, or chives. Or wild arugula Kosher salt Black pepper in a mill 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil\u2028 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice\u2028  Put the lettuce, endive, fennel, asparagus, peas, tomatoes, fava beans, radishes, cheese and herbs in a large salad bowl and gently toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle over the salad and toss. Divide the salad among 4 salad plates and serve. The Riviera Spritz  Dash Absinthe 1 oz fresh-squeezed pink grapefruit juice 2 oz Aperol 3 oz white wine Club soda  Combine all ingredients except soda in a wine glass. Fill glass with ice and stir to chill. Top with club soda. Place straws in glass and garnish with large grapefruit twist. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/a21686/tuscan-spring-salad-recipe-big-black-book-15322050/>