The Farmer & The Foodie: Summer Cooking

I could pen an ode to all things spring, fall and winter when it comes to cooking as there is much to celebrate about the unique bounty of each season; but summer… oh sweet, sweet summer. There is truly just no beating what the earth is giving us right now. The abundance is overwhelming in the most beautiful sense, farmers’ market booths brimming with a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, each ripe to bursting with flavor. You don’t have to do much, if anything, to let these vegetables shine. Instead I challenge myself to weave these items into accompaniments to a main event ingredient. Like tzatziki sauce. A generous helping of grated cucumber whisked into Greek yogurt along with fresh garlic, a spritz of lemon and a mish mash of any and all tender herbs I’ve got on hand makes a cool and creamy bed for a heap of grilled zucchini and squash, feta crumbles and a final flourish of herbs topping off a simple, satisfying and impressively plated dish. Of course, lamb meatballs would also happily adorn this sauce and it can be presented as a dip with just about any of your market haul. Speaking of meatballs, I’m excited to work through my seemingly endless bundle of peaches by pairing them with sausage meatballs seasoned with fresh ginger, garlic, and a touch of minced red onion, the hope being that the sweetness of the peaches, stewed alongside the savory, meatballs with act as a happy contrast of flavor. These peaches have also been macerated and steeped with my vanilla ice cream base, blended until smooth save flecks of their pink skin for bellinis, and thrown on the grill for an easy and irresistible dessert, just like the one we cooked up with our friends at The Food Literacy Project in season two.

And perhaps one of my all time summer favorites is a gussied up caprese salad, sliced peaches (and sometimes roast beets!) layered with an array of heirloom tomatoes and drizzled with good olive oil and flaky salt, drawing out the juices, the fruit relaxing into one another. Torn burrata, more olive oil and perhaps a few small dollops of homemade pesto over top and you’ve reached summer eating nirvana, the very best place to be, if you ask us. Salud!