Capitol Market, etc.

Outdoors on the market, growers have green and yellow summer squash, pickling cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, half-runner beans, corn, cabbage, hot peppers, sweet peppers and all sorts of eggplants. Farmers are increasingly selling tomatoes they grew themselves, and the first locally grown heirloom tomatoes are coming to market. They are selling cantaloupes and watermelons they grow.

West Virginia peaches are in their second week at the market. Depending on the variety and depending on when they were picked and how long they are stored before sale, some will be better than peaches grown out of state and sold indoors at the Purple Onion and some not nearly as good.

Indoors, the Purple Onion has free-range eggs from Feathered Farms, Lincoln County, wild blackberries from Boone County, and local summer squash, pickling cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, herbs and some heirloom tomatoes from Poca.

Owner Allan Hathaway also has freestone peaches, nectarines and plums from Virginia and South Carolina, Lodi and Summer Rambo apples from Virginia, and Crimson Sweet watermelons from Virginia, cabbage, bell peppers, half-runners, cantaloupes, eggplants, beets, kohlrabi and tomatoes, including some heirlooms, from Amish country in Ohio. He has blueberries from New Jersey and Michigan.

We sampled a head of butterhead lettuce and a pound of Swiss chard from the Monroe County farmers - the ones who take orders and make a drop-off at the local Unitarian church - and found the quality excellent. E-mail cont...@monroefarmmarket.com.

Chard

Swiss chard goes well with eggplant, Deborah Madison observes in her invaluable book "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone." Sure enough, her recipe for eggplant-chard lasagna, calling for a little chopped onion, garlic and a big bunch of chard all sautéed, mixed with ricotta, mozzarella and Pecorino Romano cheese, then blended with cooked broad noodles, broiled eggplant and just a wee bit of freshly made red sauce, then baked, really rocks. Too lazy to cook lasagna noodles, we made the dish with cooked penne pasta instead, and found the results very pleasing.

Outdoors on the market, growers have green and yellow summer squash, pickling cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, half-runner beans, corn, cabbage, hot peppers, sweet peppers and all sorts of eggplants. Farmers are increasingly selling tomatoes they grew themselves, and the first locally grown heirloom tomatoes are coming to market. They are selling cantaloupes and watermelons they grow.

West Virginia peaches are in their second week at the market. Depending on the variety and depending on when they were picked and how long they are stored before sale, some will be better than peaches grown out of state and sold indoors at the Purple Onion and some not nearly as good.

Indoors, the Purple Onion has free-range eggs from Feathered Farms, Lincoln County, wild blackberries from Boone County, and local summer squash, pickling cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, herbs and some heirloom tomatoes from Poca.

Owner Allan Hathaway also has freestone peaches, nectarines and plums from Virginia and South Carolina, Lodi and Summer Rambo apples from Virginia, and Crimson Sweet watermelons from Virginia, cabbage, bell peppers, half-runners, cantaloupes, eggplants, beets, kohlrabi and tomatoes, including some heirlooms, from Amish country in Ohio. He has blueberries from New Jersey and Michigan.

We sampled a head of butterhead lettuce and a pound of Swiss chard from the Monroe County farmers - the ones who take orders and make a drop-off at the local Unitarian church - and found the quality excellent. E-mail cont...@monroefarmmarket.com.

Chard

Swiss chard goes well with eggplant, Deborah Madison observes in her invaluable book "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone." Sure enough, her recipe for eggplant-chard lasagna, calling for a little chopped onion, garlic and a big bunch of chard all sautéed, mixed with ricotta, mozzarella and Pecorino Romano cheese, then blended with cooked broad noodles, broiled eggplant and just a wee bit of freshly made red sauce, then baked, really rocks. Too lazy to cook lasagna noodles, we made the dish with cooked penne pasta instead, and found the results very pleasing.

I love a good sauce, but there can be too much of a good thing. A lot of red sauce is seldom preferable to just barely enough red sauce. Similarly, too much white sauce or too much demi-glace can overwhelm a good meal. We don't want to conceal, which was the point of sauces a century or two ago before meats could be refrigerated.

Balance

While attending a friend's wedding in Berkeley Springs, my loveable wife and I twice dined at Tari's, a restaurant on the main street that offered some elegantly balanced dishes. The best was a baked slab of tilapia covered with the thinnest possible slices of potatoes, with four small stalks of stalks of asparagus tucked under the potatoes. All that was served on a bed of cooked but still-firm white beans accented with just enough stewed tomatoes to make things interesting.

The next day we returned for a light lunch of quesadillas filled with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach, with some fresh pesto drizzled over and some diced tomatoes and a dollop of sour cream on the side. Again, the balance was right.

Tightrope walker

"The qualities of an exceptional cook are akin to those of a successful tightrope walker: an abiding passion for the task, courage to go out on a limb and an impeccable sense of balance." - Bryan Miller, New York Times, October 1983

Reach Bob Schwarz at bobschw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1249.