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Publication Date: Friday, July 06, 2001

Often in the middle of a cooking project, I find I absolutely need something special -- a few leaves of sage, a snippet of marjoram or a rose. So I head to my backyard garden and usually return to my kitchen with hands and apron pockets full of extra ingredients, and my head full of ideas. Consult a reference book or ask a nursery before cooking with plants you are not familiar with.

Gathering and cooking

What a joy it is to look in my backyard for cooking ingredients. It is as inspiring as browsing cookbooks or the produce section of a grocery store. Often in the middle of a cooking project, I find I absolutely need something special -- a few leaves of sage, a snippet of marjoram or a rose. So I head to my backyard garden and usually return to my kitchen with hands and apron pockets full of extra ingredients, and my head full of ideas. Some lemon verbena to flavor drinking water, nasturtiums to decorate a salad, or borage leaves to make green noodles.

Your menus can acquire interesting twists if you learn to use and appreciate the leaves, flowers, vegetables, and herbs growing in your own backyard. In my family, rosemary is immediately associated with French fries, bay leaves with ragù, basil with pesto or pizza sauce.

If you have grapes, you can harvest the tenderest green leaves and make frittatine with herbs, like they do in Northern Italy (see recipe below). Add a few spinach or Swiss chard leaves, some nettle tops (if available), a mixture of fresh herbs (thyme, mint, marjoram, savory), and chopped garlic, and voilà, your kitchen will smell like spring.

You don't need a huge garden or farm. I only have a regular-sized backyard, and a pool occupies most of it. Organize your garden with an awareness of the edible aspects of the plants you choose, not just their decorative value. Most edible plants also have colorful blossoms and attractive foliage. Aromatic geranium leaves are good in teas, deep blue borage flowers add a spicy zip to salads, the silvery leaves and purple blossoms of sage flavor pastas and meats, and the long pale-green stalks of lemon grass are essential in many Asian dishes.

Even plants growing by accident can become useful ingredients. Last year I sowed basil but didn't get a single sprig. I never solved the mystery, but I did use the nettles that grew from the seeds. Nettle, usually considered a weed, it is a common ingredient in Italian soups, ravioli stuffing, and frittatas. However, consult a reference book or ask a nursery before cooking with plants you are not familiar with. And stay away from plants sprayed with chemicals.

A friend's mother gave me an ancient Tuscan recipe for potato torta baked on fig leaves. My fig tree never produces any edible fruit but has plenty of leaves perfect for this unusual, delicious, and easy-to-make dish. Mash potatoes; mix with some eggs, marjoram and grated Parmesan cheese. Line a baking dish with fig leaves, pour on the mixture, smooth it out, make crisscross marks with a fork, and bake. If you try a recipe like this, your kitchen will be inundated with the sweet, fruity aroma of fig that gives the torta its unique flavor.

If possible, include some fruit trees among your herbs and flowers. Try peach or cherry leaves to flavor vanilla pudding; they give a light almond flavor to the custard. If you make jelly from cherries, peaches, or apricots, don't throw away the pits. Save them to create delicious, colorful liqueurs. A Calabrian friend taught me to bake honey/raisin/walnut cookies using lemon or orange leaves. During baking, the aromatic leaf oils permeate the cookies, which are served directly on the leaves when finished.

Roses, besides gracing the yard with beauty and fragrance, enhance many preparations. Multicolored, scented petals can be used in rose vinegar, jelly, syrup, and liqueurs. For a unique treat, make rose dust. Pick pink and red petals and let them dry for several days on paper towels. In a food processor or blender grind 2 cups of packed dried petals with 2 cups of sugar to make a powder. Sift the powder and sprinkle it on fruit salads, cakes or pies. It adds a marvelous touch.

Greens like chicory, purslane, wild asparagus, nettles, and other tasty vines with strange names have always been used in my native Italy to make frittatas, tortas, ravioli, and green gnocchi, or simply boiled and served with a drizzle of good olive oil and a few drops of lemon juice. Borrage, Swiss chard, spinach, and arugula, easily grown from seed, give a wider variety of taste and texture to salads and vegetable dishes. It is not unusual to harvest several crops, because the plants go to seed and reproduce.

If you are in the mood for the pungent, bitter taste of wild greens and you don't have any in your backyard, shop at a farmers' market. The one in Mountain View has many kinds of potted herbs and vegetables. You can also buy bunches of dandelion, broccoli rabe, Swiss chard, and mustard greens. All are excellent sautéed with garlic and chopped chilies and served as a side dish or stuffed in focaccia. Or use the mixture to dress some orecchiette or rigatoni.

Whenever I cook greens I hear my mother's words: "This is healthy food, and it tastes good. Look at me; I grew up eating wild greens. I'm 75 and I've never been sick." Nelly Capra is a former restaurant and food storeowner in Genoa, Italy. Ten years ago she moved to the Bay Area, where she teaches Italian cooking, culture, and language. She has written articles for culinary publications and is a food consultant for several Web sites.