Appetites: A local revolutionary

Lenny Russo has been at the forefront of the local food movement for a generation. His Heartland restaurant in Lowertown Saint Paul is known for its menu featuring the best our region's land has to offer.

Now his thinking and his recipes are collected in a new cookbook, "Heartland: Farm Fresh Dishes from the Great Midwest."

He told MPR News host Tom Crann about what inspired him to use local ingredients — and how he went about finding them when he first arrived in Minnesota in 1985.

"It was more difficult. The small farmer network wasn't really what it is today. I mean I had a hard time finding locally churned butter, milk, eggs — things that you just want to get straight from the farm because they're just going to be so wonderful. I found that most of the chefs were flying ingredients in ... And when I looked around I said, 'you know the ingredients here are some of the best in the world. I don't understand why we're not using them.'"

When his Heartland restaurant opened in St. Paul in 2002, it was considered "relatively revolutionary." At the time, Russo said, his hope was the restaurant would inspire others to support local, sustainable agriculture. And that's widely become the case among restaurants around the region.

"So the 'uniqueness' of Heartland, we probably engineered ourselves out of that by creating that restaurant when we were at the front of the curve ... not knowing, of course, that there was a curve," Russo said.

Recipe: Grilled Lake Trout with Braised Turnip Greens and Yogurt Sauce

Courtesy of Russo, from his cookbook "Heartland: Farm Fresh Dishes from the Great Midwest."

To run a profitable restaurant, it is imperative not to let food to go waste. It's the chef's challenge to use as much of an ingredient as possible, and elevate it to something special. Often, all that takes is combining it with another ingredient that complements it. I love those moments of culinary inspiration. This recipe uses the leafy tops of the many varieties of turnips we begin to see in late summer. The yogurt sauce does an admirable job of taming the spiciness of the greens.

Serves 6

For the trout:
6 lake trout filets (4 to 6 ounces each)
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

For the sauce:
1 1/2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
2 green onions, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the greens:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups turnip greens, stemmed
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup Court-Bouillon

Preheat a grill to moderate heat. Rub the trout on both sides with grapeseed oil and season it with the salt and white pepper. Grill the trout, about 6 minutes per side, until medium rare.

Keep warm until ready to serve.

In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt, onions, dill, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and stir to mix well.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over moderately low heat. Add the garlic and sweat until soft, about 1 minute. Add the greens. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and pour in the court-bouillon. Cover and braise until wilted, about 3 minutes.

Divide the braised greens among six serving plates, and top each with a trout filet. Spoon a dollop of sauce alongside the fish and serve.

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