each month, bon appetit magazine does feature stories on seasonal ingredients.  in the april issue, i prepared to see something very springy & green, because usually when the weather takes a turn for the warmer, everyone’s ready to ditch their root vegetables in favor of something a little bit lighter.

so, i was really surprised to see an entire story on radishes.  yep.  radishes.  those spicy white cricles that are sometimes lurking in the depths of salads, rarely a main ingredient.  so yeah, i was pretty surprised to see them as the focus of a several page spread…but also?  intrigued.

bon appetit proclaimed radishes to be, “crunchy, peppery, and perfect with nothing more than a dab of butter and a sprinkle of sea salt, radishes need little tinkering to taste great.”  perfect, because who doesn’t love butter & salt?  {if you don’t, don’t answer, i’d like for us to stay friends.}  i was also in search of simple recipes, with minimal ingredients, since i was handling round one of easter dinner completely on my own.  so i gave this one a shot.  to call it a recipe is really overcomplicating things.

i only sliced up half the baguette at first, but went ahead & mixed up all of the spread, {with the anchovy paste snuck in once grandpa’s wife walked out of the room.  i knew she’d never go for it, if she saw it.}, thinking that if no one liked the radishes, we’d at least have some kick ass butter, but once i put that first half out, they got snatched up faster than i could possibly replenish them.

radishes for the win!

FRESH RADISH BAGUETTE
makes about 16

1/2 (1 stick) salted butter (at the risk of sounding too much like the barefoot contessa, this really is the time to use good butter.  we used kerrygold irish butter.)
1-2 teaspoons anchovy paste
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped, plus more for garnish
freshly ground pepper
coarse kosher salt
1 fresh baguette, thinly sliced on a slight diagonal, about 1/2 inch thick
10 radishes, trimmed & thinly sliced

in a small bowl, mix together butter, anchovy paste, chives & pepper. taste for salt, & if it needs more, squeeze in a little more anchovy paste. spread the butter mixture over one side of each baguette slice. top each one with sliced radishes, slightly overlapping the slices to completely cover the bread. sprinkle with additional chives & serve.

very slightly adapted from bon appetit