An Ode to Late Spring: Quick Recipe for Chive Oil

Quick! Rush out to your garden and chop down all the chives you can hold in one hand or in your apron or even in your shirt pocket. If you don’t have a big plant out back, the local farmers markets are blooming with chives, thick with purple blossoms. Either way, bring that bunch home and chop it up as fine as you like; no points for neatness. The messier, the better!

Pile the chives in a bowl and drizzle them with your very best extra virgin olive oil, something full of fruit and flavor. Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on top and toss everything together with a spoon, an antique silver spoon worked fine for me…

The result will be a luscious chive oil that looks something like a thin pesto. It’s rich and fruity, due to your fabulous extra virgin olive oil, and totally fragrant from the fresh chives. It’s quite tasty too and gets better the longer the flavors mesh together. I’ve been drizzling it on everything… and I mean, everything.

This chive oil is great on: freshly made pizzas; morning omelets; bowls of thin spaghetti; tortillas and flat breads of all sorts; roasted meats and poultry charred by the grill or roasted in the oven; roasted, steamed or boiled vegetables; fresh baguette w/butter or bits of crostini; any single-vegetable soup puree like carrot or pea soup; and corn on the cob. That’s a start, but I’m certain you’ll come up with even better combinations.

And now some gratuitous shots of chives from my garden… but first, a list of blogs with other great uses for chives:

• Spring Pesto at Eat Make Read
• Chilled Beet Soup with Kefir and Chives at Crumpets and Cakes
• Chive Blossom Vinegar at A Full Measure of Happiness
• Savory Buttermilk Biscuits with Cheddar and Chives from Brooklyn Supper

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