Cretan Vlita Vrasta (Βλήτα Βραστά)

Cretan vlita vrasta are the summer horta of Crete: amaranth shoots boiled until the stalks turn sweet, then dressed warm with lemon and green-gold olive oil. The region is the dish's surname here. The Cretan table often brings the vlita out with potatoes and small zucchini from the same pot, not as decoration, but because a small field of vegetables can become supper.

The one thing that decides it is tenderness. Vlita is not spinach, and it isn't a raw salad pretending to be cooked. The stems need to bend easily between your fingers and lose their grassy squeak. Start the potatoes first, add the zucchini, then the cleaned greens, and salt the water well so the whole plate tastes seasoned before the oil touches it.

I dress them while still warm, with enough oil to gloss the leaves and enough lemon to wake them up. Eat the stalks too. My mother Sofia would watch children leave them behind and say nothing for half a minute, which in Thessaloniki meant the lecture was already cooking.

With bread, olives, or a piece of feta outside a fast, this is a complete summer plate. During nistia, the fasting days, it needs no apology. Good olive oil, and patience.