Ragano still dislikes salmon, but that didn’t stop him from making it the centerpiece of his yuzu dish. Inspired partly by the sandwiches he ate growing up, partly by lox and bagels, he pan roasted a salmon fillet and served it with pumpernickel “soil” (toasted and ground pumpernickel bread with olive oil, salt, pepper, and caraway) and a yuzu and Greek yogurt sauce. And he didn’t forget the beets: Ragano prepared them two ways—roasted and raw. The raw beets he sliced thin and tossed with yuzu vinaigrette: yuzu juice, champagne vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and honey. For garnish he added sprigs of dill, which resembled blades of grass sprouting from the pumpernickel crumbs on the plate.
