This is not really a recipe, but an special welcome extended to season’s first lettuces.

It is also a gift from Tomoko, who appears to be drowning in seasonal produce at the moment. She asked if I might be interested in taking some off her hands, a precious bag of tender leaves plucked just that morning. Wouldn’t my interest be a given? Lettuces are best eaten immediately right after harvesting, but I’ll gladly take them harvested the morning of!

The leaves were sugar sweet, with fluffy folds and crunchy ribs. Delicious on their own, right out of the bag (I didn’t mind the few grains of dirt clinging to them), they were even better properly washed, hand-torn, and drizzled with a broken vinaigrette — just some lovely olive oil, and a few drops of apple cider vinegar stirred gently together so that they didn’t emulsify into regular vinaigrette. Flaky Maldon salt. Fresh black pepper.

It’s shaping up to be a great season.