Our neighborhood farmer’s market just opened up for the season, and I couldn’t be happier! Robert and I braved the rain and cold on Sunday and headed down to see what was fresh this week. This early in the season, there isn’t quite the same level of abundance that you see in the summer and autumn months, but we still found a few good things to try including some adorable baby turnips. I had never had baby turnips before so I had no idea if I would like them or not. Come to think of it, I’m not sure that I’ve ever had adult turnips either. But, I like most vegetables and, at a mere $2.00/bunch, I figured I didn’t have much to lose.

The turnips looked really clean already so I just gave them a quick rinse and then trimmed off the greens, leaving a bit of the stem attached to make them look pretty. I steamed the turnips along with some small carrots for a very short time until they were just tender. Then, I tossed them in a pan with a little butter, salt, pepper and a tiny pinch of sugar until the vegetables were glazed and beginning to brown in spots. I served the turnips alongside orecchiette pasta with fresh fava beans, Red Russian kale (also from the farmer’s market) and the greens from the baby turnips. And for Robert, Cascioppo Italian sausages. The turnips were delicious. Very tender and a little bit sweet. They were actually kind of juicy which, for a root vegetable, is sort of amazing. The turnip greens were appropriately bitter and went really well with the creamy fava beans in the pasta. Hooray for the return of the farmer’s market!