A 5-Step Spring Dinner Party Featuring Sugar Snap Peas, Meyer Lemon and Asparagus

Last night's dinner party featured delicious fresh spring produce in simple, mediterranean combinations. Since one of the guests was vegetarian, the whole menu was meatless starting with a hot baked feta that was SO tasty and super easy. Rob and I discovered the miracle of baked feta when we were on the Greek island of Kos last year.

Menu
Cucumber mint ginger punch
Baked feta with meyer lemon and pita triangles
Sugar snap pea and grilled lettuce salad with goat cheese tzatziki (inspired by this Bittman recipe)
Italian ravioli with truffled asparagus and aged parmesan cheese
Rosemary meyer lemon bread
Nutella brown butter cookies

Step 1: Shop
I went to farmer's market first thing in the morning and picked up the most spring-y items I could find: a huge amount of sugar snap peas, asparagus, meyer lemons, green onions and mint. Stopped at Whole Foods on the walk home to buy feta cheese, a loaf of rosemary bread, pita bread and two packages of the most amazing fresh asparagus ravioli from Bertagni - an Italian company that has been making pasta since 1882. About $30 in supplies all together for six guests. I already had a cucumber, olive oil, garlic, paprika, plain greek yogurt and various alcohol at home.

Step 2: Decorate
I set the table similar to this rustic Italian dinner party last year - with a simple yellow tablecloth, yellow and blue napkins, blue china and a straw runner.  Those quince blossoms from February are still blooming and made an appearance along with a couple small straw easter bunnies.

Step 3: Prep
The punch was first to be prepped - combining slices of cucumber and lemon with mint, spicy ginger ale, plum brandy, muscato wine, vodka and gin. Basically, I emptied out a bunch of remnants from the liquor cabinet to make a delicious hybrid between sangria and a pimm's cup. The punch went into the fridge to cool.

Next, I prepped the feta for baking by drizzling it with olive oil, green onions, mint, meyer lemon (with rind) a bit of garlic and a dash of spicy paprika from Croatia. Covered with foil and into the fridge for baking later.

Ran the asparagus through a green bean frencher to transform it into thin ribbons. Tossed the asparagus with a bit of truffle oil, salt and pepper for later. Whipped up a version of simple tzatziki with a bit of herbed goat cheese. Made a lemon vinaigrette for the lettuce. Split open the sugar snap peas and cut up the bread. Everything was done for the party before 11 am!

Step 4: Last minute prep
Back home from an afternoon of meetings with an hour and a half before guests arrived. I made a simple butter wine sauce for the ravioli. Then, cleaned the bathroom and living room before pre-heating the oven and and staging all the pots and plates for the dinner. Having the pans you'll need already out and pots full of water makes the service go more smoothly.

Step 5: Party!
Guests arrived at 7:00 and we had a leisurely cocktail hour with the delicious punch and the melty baked feta with pita triangles. I stepped out for a minute to quickly grill the lettuce and assemble the salads before inviting everyone to sit down and turned on the water to boil for the ravioli. Grilling gave the lettuce an interesting almost lamb-like flavor that went really well with the tzatziki.

The ravioli went into the water for a quick 5 minute boil when the salads were being finished. Asparagus ribbons tossed on the same grill pan from the lettuce for a quick sear and the bread into the oven to be heated up. When the salad plates were cleared and wine glasses refilled, I just needed to shave some aged parmesan we got for Christmas on top of the finished asparagus dish.

I rushed to take a photo of everyone at the party before we devoured the ravioli and rosemary bread.

After the main course, we cleared the plates and had a pot of decaf coffee along with the decadent brown butter nutella cookies a guest brought for dessert. As always, the conversation went on far too late for a weeknight...so fun!