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SPRING GREENS
Arugula is in the mustard family.
Perhaps there's no better way to enjoy wild arugula than Vin48's La Quercia, with prosciutto, burrata cheese, roasted red peppers and white balsamic vinaigrette.
ARE YOU INTO ARUGULA? THERE’S NO DOUBT ABOUT
it: When springtime arrives in the Vail Valley, fresh arugula is a great way to propose some pepperiness to your palate. Whether in a salad, on a sandwich or as a bed for other tasty gastronomic items, the ancient Mediterranean leafy green — known around the world, too, as eruca, rucola,
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VAIL LIFESTYLE ✧ S P R I N G 2 016
rucoli, rugula, colewort, roquette and garden rocket — is quite a bit healthier than lettuce, and far more flavorful and exciting. “The flavor profile is different than other greens with a peppery, almost spicy taste,” says Chef Charles Hays of Vin48 in Avon. “Arugula is a lot like watercress, or mâche, but more peppery. That’s why we enjoy using it.”
Peppery and popular, it’s a healthy choice come springtime
ARUGU L A AROU N D TOWN Not surprisingly, local dishes incorporating arugula as the main ingredient are not hard to find. In Vail Village, for instance, Up the Creek Bar & Grill, on Gore Creek, offers a classic arugula salad, complete with Bosc pears, toasted walnuts, goat cheese and vanilla vinaigrette; and Vendetta’s Restaurant &
Pizza Bar, on Bridge Street, offers heaps of arugula in its beet salad, along with spinach, red and gold beets, roasted tomatoes, daikon sprouts, endive, red onions and radicchio, all tossed in a light citrus vinaigrette. Notice the accompanying sweet and sour flavors — pears, vanilla and citrus — which Hays says are essential to balancing out
CHARLES TOWNSEND BESSENT, DOMINIQUE TAYLOR