“Chefs have different motivations in the kitchen. We want to represent, curate Italian foods, classics, things that have nostalgia for us — and that's our drive. Some people have more invested and want to recreate, and vision and passion and ego and all these things come in, and that can spin a dish — you might feel like that corrupts a dish, you might feel like it's genius or brilliant. So I think you find personality of chefs in their food sometimes.” — Jody Williams

Almost everyone knows that Via Carota, which is tucked away on Grove Street in the West Village, has become a standby for locals who want to eat really well – we have friends who are true regulars, and I was, too, before Covid. It’s really with good reason — though perhaps it’s becoming more common, it’s still a rare restaurant that does more than pay lip service to seasonality. But Via Carota not only uses seasonal ingredients — it has an uncomplicated feel, doesn’t come off as precious, and, well, the food’s great.

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This week’s guests on Food with Mark Bittman are Via Carota owners Jody Williams and Rita Sodi. They met at Sodi’s much-admired other restaurant, I Sodi — Williams owns Buvette — and are now partners both in life and in work. Via Carota could be described as their love child; it’s a restaurant I’ve liked for years, and it’s one of Kate’s favorite restaurants, so she and Melissa talked with Williams and Sodi about vegetables, and seasons, and favorite foods, and the duo’s recent cookbook, Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking from the Beloved Greenwich Village Restaurant. It’s a conversation that will no doubt leave you eager to cook — and to go out to eat.

Please listen and subscribe, and please review on Apple, as it really helps. Today’s podcast recipe — the Carote from Via Carota — is below.

Thank you, as always. — Mark

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Carote: Roasted carrots, spiced yogurt, and pistachios

This roasted carrot dish has been a favorite since we opened, and we don’t dare take it off the menu. We add a crunch of pistachios and cumin, not traditionally Italian— this is Jody’s tweak. — Via Carota

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups/500 ml water

• 1 tablespoon/12 grams sugar

• 1 pound/454 grams multicolored carrots (about 8), peeled

• Salt

• Extra-virgin olive oil

• 3/4 teaspoon/2 grams cumin seeds, toasted and coarsely ground

• 1/3 cup/80 ml Salmoriglio (recipe below)

• 1/4 cup/35 grams toasted pistachios, chopped

• 1/2 cup/120 grams full-fat Greek yogurt

• Large handful mixed fresh herbs, such as basil, mint, cilantro, parsley, and chives

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 450ºF/230Cº. Stir water and sugar in a large baking dish to dissolve the sugar and add the carrots, coating them. Tightly cover the dish with foil and place it in the oven to steam the carrots until they’re tender when pierced with a fork, about 30 minutes. Drain off any water remaining in the dish, toss the carrots with salt, and lightly coat with olive oil. Spread the carrots out in the dish and return to the oven, uncovered, to roast until browned, about 20 minutes. While the carrots are hot, toss them with about half the cumin, half the salmoriglio, and the pistachios. Season the yogurt with salt and the rest of the cumin and spoon it onto a plate. Arrange the carrots on the yogurt and spoon the remaining salmoriglio over them. Refresh the herb leaves briefly in a bowl of ice water and pat them dry before piling loosely on top.

Salmoriglio: Lemon and garlic dressing

Salmoriglio is an all-purpose summery dressing. We use it in several recipes throughout this book, as a marinade and as a vinaigrette. — Via Carota

Makes about 1½ cups/360 ml

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons/90 ml lemon juice (from 2 lemons)

• 4 garlic cloves, finely grated (about 2 teaspoons)

• 1½ teaspoons/4.5 grams salt

• 1/2 teaspoon/1 gram chili flakes

• 1 teaspoon/3 grams dried oregano

• 1 tablespoon/15 ml water

• 3/4 cup/180 ml extra-virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup/60 ml neutral oil such as safflower

• A few sprigs fresh flat- leaf parsley, finely chopped

Instructions:

Combine the lemon juice, garlic, salt, chili flakes, oregano, and water in a small bowl. Slowly pour in the oils, whisking constantly. Stir in the parsley.

Stir briskly just before using; the lemon and garlic will have settled to the bottom. Salmoriglio is best used the day it’s made, but will keep, refrigerated, for up to 3 days.

— Recipes from Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking from the Beloved Greenwich Village Restaurant by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi, with Anna Kovel. Copyright © 2022 by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Carote

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