Spring fever has hit The Brooklyn Kitchen and The Meat Hook.  Brunch participants are dunking their heads in coolers and shotgunning beers, the butchers are bagging chicken wings to go!  In produce land, our cases are stocked full of fresh goat cheese, rhubarb, wild salad greens, pea shoots and more ramps than we know what to do with.

Do not be overwhelmed by the selection!  These veggies are young, tender and full of flavor.  The simplest preparation is often the best one.  My favorite recipe comes from Canal House Cooking‘s spring edition- one of my most loved seasonal cookbooks.

This recipe is for the oven but with the lovely turn in weather (and lack of apocalypse) feel free to adapt it to the grill!

Roasted Spring Onions
serves 4-6

Adapted from Canal House Cooking Vol. 3

Spring onions (not to be mistaken with green onions or scallions make their appearance at the markets beginning in April. We see them with more frequency now than just a couple of years ago, and with a growing season that extends all the way into August. Spring onions are Mr. Universe to the 96-lb. weakling scallion. You’ll see them sold in bunches, the thick green stalks gathered together just about the naked white or blush purple (usually fat) bulbs. These deliciously milk onions are immature storage onions, and due to their increased popularity, farmers are staggering their plantings, pulling the young bulbs from the ground throughout the spring and on into the summer to extend the season.

Ingredients
6-8 whole spring onions, long green stems attached
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Balsamic vinegar

Method
Preheat the oven to 500F. Arrange the onions in a single layer in a heavy roasting pan. Douse them with olive oil and generously season them with salt and pepper.

Roast the onions until deeply browned all over, about 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 250F and continue roasting them until the bulbs are tender, 10-15 minutes longer. Remove the onions from the oven and drizzle them with a couple small spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar, turning them in the pan to coat them with pan juices. Season with a little more salt. These are equally delicious served warm from the oven or at room temperature.