As evenings get cooler, we don’t mind switching on our ovens and roasting vegetables at high temperature. You might want to try roasting eggplants while they are still plentiful. Choose the regular glossy dark eggplants for this. The addition of a pinch of turmeric is less for taste than for color – it imbues the eggplant slices with a golden hue. You can omit it if you don’t have ground turmeric handy.

Roasted Eggplant with a garlic-yoghurt sauce
1 medium eggplant
2 Tbs. light olive oil,...
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Tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic and olive oil…. All are available now at our market. Together they form the basis of many a great summer dish. Including this one for baked tomatoes, which delivers great flavor with a minimum of fuss.

Tomatoes stuffed with basil and garlic

4 medium-large firm ripe tomatoes
2 fat cloves of garlic, halved lengthways
4 large basil leaves
sea-salt
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Find an ovenproof dish that will hold tomatoes snugly – you want a tight fit. Core...
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The French for garlic is ail, and this week’s recipe if for aioli, a thick emulsion of garlic, oil, and (usually) egg from the Mediterranean. Nowadays you see the name used for all sorts of flavored mayonnaises – wasabi aioli, pomegranate aioli, that sort of thing -- but if it’s not thick as butter and redolent of garlic, it’s just not aioli. 

Aioli

2-5 peeled cloves of garlic, depending on size, pungency, and how much you like garlic
sea-salt, pepper
1 tsp. fine white breadcrumbs (made ...
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Here’s a twist on guacamole that adds colorful summer vegetables from the market. Call it guacamole loco.

Farmers’ Market Guacamole

1 small ear of fresh corn, husk and silk removed
olive oil
large pinch each cumin seeds and dried oregano
1 peeled, very fresh garlic clove
salt, ¼ tsp. red chili flakes
2 ripe avocados, halved, pits removed
¼  cup finely diced onion (preferably red)
¼ cup each seeded, finely diced tomato and green bell pepper
squeeze of lime juice
1 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro
warm ...
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Now is also the season for garlic scapes. If you see a jar or basket of green curly things at the market, you are looking at scapes. (Peachtree Circle Farm has also been known to braid them.) Scapes are the “flowering” stalks of hard-neck garlic. Farmers cut the scapes from their garlic plants so the plants don’t divert energy into reproducing. This produces a fatter underground bulb to harvest later in the summer. And it gives us a fleeting seasonal treat in June – a taste of garlic ...
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1 lb. English shelling peas, to make 1 cup shelled peas
3 tbs. torn mint leaves
2 tbs. torn parsley leaves
sea salt or Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1 tbs. or so olive oil
half a lemon, for squeezing
1 tbs. finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus some for serving

To serve:
handful of shelled sugar snap peas (choose fat pods)
1 cup tender pea tendrils, any tough stalks trimmed
4-6 mint leaves, torn up
1 garlic scape, top-knot discarded, tender stalk parts finely minced
Sea salt, lemon juice, olive oil
4...
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