The end of summer is upon us. Now is the time to visit your local farmers market to pick up the best of the summer's jewels before they're gone until next year. Juicy, vine ripe tomatoes of all sizes and colors, fragrant basil with leaves as big as your palm, young and slender green beans... these are just a few of the produce items I'll miss the most. Sure, you can buy all these things at the neighborhood grocery year round these days but the summer-fresh flavor of handpicked vegetables still warm from the sun in the fields can't be duplicated by vegetables grown out of season in commercial, corporate hothouses. There's simply no way that an insipid grocery store tomato can compete with an organically grown heirloom tomato that made its way from the field to your table in less than a day. I'm willing to bet money on that statement.
I took my kids to the
Simsbury Farmers Market last week and we came home with so many goodies. We purchased a couple pounds of bright red heirloom tomatoes, a pound of green beans, a pound of Japanese baby eggplants, the biggest bunch of basil I have ever bought anywhere, a crusty boule of whole grain French bread, a bag of freshly popped kettle corn, a bottle of handcrafted
Hudson Valley Homestead lemon thyme vinegar, and two massive ice cream cones with sprinkles for the kiddies. All of it came to less than $35 dollars, which I think is a pretty good deal considering that the vinegar alone was $10 (it's only $5 on the Hudson Valley website so I'll order from there in the future). And this is what we made for dinner that night:
Summer on a plate. Looks good, doesn't it? Adding some warm sausage makes the salad very substantial, so it's great for dinner. If you don't like sausage then substitute grilled chicken. To go vegetarian, substitute fresh mozzarella or goat cheese. Here's the recipe. Enjoy!
FARMERS MARKET SALAD
printer friendly recipe
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon thyme vinegar or whatever vinegar you like
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 pound pork or turkey sausage links, either sweet or spicy, whatever you like
1/2 pound green beans (bonus points if you can get your hands on some haricot verts)
1/2 small red onion, sliced thinly
1 pound of the best tomatoes you can find, cut into bite sized slices or chunks
1/2 small boule of crusty bread, cut into big cubes to make about two cups
a big handful of basil, torn into pieces
Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, garlic, sugar, salt and white pepper. Set aside until ready to use.
Cook the sausage links however you prefer. I like to grill them on a medium hot grill for about 20 minutes.
While the sausages are cooking, steam the green beans until crisp-tender. An easy way to do this is to put the green beans in a microwave safe bowl with a inch of water. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 3-4 minutes. Carefully remove plastic wrap and drain green beans thoroughly. Rinse green beans with very cold water. Drain off as much water as possible before putting the green beans into a large serving bowl.
Add the onion and tomatoes to the green beans. Make sure to add any juices that have come out of the tomatoes.
When the sausages are done cooking, slice each link into bite sized pieces while still warm and add to the bowl.
Pour the dressing over the bowl and mix well.
Add the basil and bread right before serving. Mix well.
Serve immediately.
Serves 4.
