At Table: Five Dinners from the Greenmarket

"Could you shop only from the farmers' market for a week?" R. had asked.

Ugh. Was it really necessary to set up a challenge?

"It's kind of expensive," I answered, immediately regretting the words. Just two weeks ago, peering into the bag of $7 cherries he'd purchased at the market — cherries that would later taste like nothing I've every tasted before, luscious as pie filling — I'd flashed to the $1.99/pound sign on the shipped-from-California variety selling at the Key Foods up the street and recoiled, "You paid what for those?" Before quickly mumbling, "I take it back. They're valuable, of course they should cost that..."

"Plus, it's so formulaic," I frowned, hoping an affront to my writerly sensibilities would settle the matter.

"It was just an idea," he said, shrugging it off.

But now the idea was out there. It came back to me while I was running, and then later over dinner, and again as I pulled on pajamas. So annoying! Of course I could — and now I had to try. It didn't have to be anything as lame as a challenge, I told myself. Nothing as trite as forcing myself to bring all the ingredients home from the market. It could be just the primary component — the inspiring bit — that came from the greenmarket, with the large grocery store supplying the loose odds and ends, instead of the reverse.

Could I emerge from one greenmarket visit with enough ingredients to inspire five meals?

Admittedly, I wasn't in top form Saturday morning, but such is life. Here's what we've managed so far. (Greenmarket items in caps.)

Meal One: Carmelized RED ONION and RED POTATO frittata. Which, it must be said, was rather tasty but by far the most unattractive frittata I've ever produced, with a pronounced emphasis on the vegetable end of things rather than the egg (a ratio Mark Bittman is a fan of, though R. made it known he was not). We ate it with some toast spread with pesto, (from last week's greenmarket BASIL) and a salad of ARUGULA and SORREL.











Meal Two: Linguini with a GARLIC CLAM sauce, prefaced by a crudite plate (the world's fanciest term for raw vegetables, in lieu of an assembled salad) of JAPANESE TURNIPS and KIRBY CUCUMBERS. For dessert, a stone-fruit cobbler of PEACHES, APRICOTS, CHERRIES, and SUGAR PLUMS.





























Meal Three: Cold orzo salad with HARICOT VERT, almonds, sundried tomatoes, and a SHALLOT vinaigrette. R. had hormone-free flank steak (from Union Market) over his, and I had Boca chicken on mine.











Meal Four: EGGPLANT curry with MINT and basmati rice. A friend's mom, who's from Punjab, came over for a visit a few months ago and let me take furious notes while she made a heavenly curry. Mine was no match for hers, but it still made for better eatin' than photographin'.











There we are, and it's still only Tuesday. It's tempting to want to rally up to five, and tell you about Sunday morning's French toast with PEACH compote. But while one can buy challah and milk and eggs at the greenmarket, that's not where I got any of those things, and I can't quite count a meal on its compote.

Which is fine. I've still got some okra to contend with...