May's Can't-Miss Dish

Squid Stuffed with Wild Ramp Sausage - Field & Vine
By Ellen Bhang · 05/01/2019

Looking for a no-fail, mouthwatering, gonna-tell-your-friends-about-it plate? Each month, Boston Globe columnist Ellen Bhang highlights the dish you need to try right now—and something to sip alongside it.

On the plate: Grilled Squid Stuffed with Ramp Sausage

Where to find it: When warm afternoon light streams through the windows at Field & Vine, you feel rewarded for having braved New England’s chillier months. Let Sara Markey-Brady lead you to one of the restaurant’s farmhouse-chic tables or to a comfy barstool facing the open kitchen. From your seat, watch the cooks as they chiffonade herbs and cut thick slices from hearty loaves. Chef Andrew Brady is at the helm, stoking the embers of a wood-fueled hearth.

Notes on the nosh: The greenery on the plate feels like an ode to everything sprouting from the earth. Ramps—hyper-seasonal darlings of the allium family—are minced then folded into finely ground pork sausage. The meaty filling is stuffed into squid that’s pulled from the waters surrounding Rhode Island’s Point Judith. Lightly charred leaves of the wild leeks adorn the grilled bundles of seafood, along with watercress, daikon microgreens, and crunchy fried garlic. Be sure to ask for a basket of the no-knead focaccia to sop up the squid’s scrumptious braising liquid.

Sip alongside: A 2017 Goisot Bourgogne Aligoté is beautifully ripe and vivid. While the aligoté grape has a humbler reputation in France than chardonnay, father-and-son winemakers Jean-Hugues and Guilhem Goisot know how to coax the best from this nervy varietal. “The way the dish feels, I wanted something light and bright,” says Markey-Brady, explaining how she chose the minerally white wine. “I was thinking spring.”

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