“Playing With Your Food” is a weekly post highlighting a few of the many great uses for the wide range of produce and artisan food at the Salem Farmers’ Market, a Salem Main Streets project.  While we can never predict exactly what our farms will be able to bring each week, we do our best to reflect some of the fun items we’ve found recently and what’s likely to be available for the upcoming week.  Hopefully this will give you a few new ideas to play with, and inspire you to try some new things at the market.

The true workhorses of the summer are finally hitting their stride – tomatoes, corn, and eggplant.  This is arguable (cucumber is definitely on the fence), but tomatoes, corn, and eggplant work hard during their relatively short time frame.  This is the first of two posts we’ll be doing on this solid trio of produce.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are the summer superstars of any farmers’ market.  The difference between a local, seasonal tomato from your garden/local market and a watery, mealy tomato from the supermarket in January is immense.  There are SO many things that can be done with tomatoes, simple or otherwise, that it seems silly to talk about what to do with them, but here are a few specific ideas:

• Tomato Sauce
• Stuffed Tomato with Mozzerella
• Fried Green Tomatoes – this works equally well with ripe tomatoes

Eggplant at Wally’s Vegetables

Eggplant

You’re either an eggplant fan or you’re not; I haven’t met people who are ambivalent to eggplant.  Whether it’s a side or the main dish, eggplant is one of the most versatile vegetables at the market:

• Eggplant Caponata
• Eggplant Parmesan
• White Eggplant with Mint

Corn

Everyone knows what to do with corn, right?  Actually, no, because everyone seems to have their own favorite way to use corn, the correct shucking method, best cooking technique, etc.  Here are a few different approaches:

• Corn Buttermilk Popovers
• Grilled Corn with Basil Butter – note: trust the recipe’s suggestions make way more butter than you need, then use it on anything you like – other vegetables, pancakes, etc.

And even better…

• Tomato and Corn – Summer Garden Tortellini
• Eggplant and Tomato (and fresh ricotta from Wolf Meadow or Milk and Honey) – Eggplant and Ricotta Spaghetti
• Eggplant, Tomato, and Corn – Sweet Corn Polenta with Eggplant Sauce

Base for Eggplant and Ricotta Spaghetti