Jul 11 2010
Farmers’ Market Yummieness
We’ve been a bit better, lately, at getting out to the Farmers’ Market which takes place every Saturday in Edinburgh. When we lived in Dalry we walked up their at least once a month, drawn by the lure of porridge or ostrich burgers for brekkie, but the thought of trekking across town on the bus of a Saturday makes it less appealing. And D doesn’t have a bike.
On a recent trip (who am I kidding it was ages ago!) we got some fresh ricotta, made by Italian/Scots couple Gabriele Caputo and Adriana Alonzi (yes, there is a distant connection to Ariana!) down at Yester Mains Farm. No website, but there’s a wee article from the Herald here and (possible related) an awesome photo set by photograher Gary Doak here. We felt, as it was our first experience of cooking with properly fresh ricotta, that we oughtn’t overwhelm the flavours, so served it with spaghetti and herbs. (This may have been on the advice of Mary Contini although I don’t recall). It looked gorgeous.
If anything, it didn’t quite taste of enough for my liking. Perhaps I am unsophisticated. Perhaps it was a little too wet? In any case it wasn’t expensive, so I think we shall continue to experiment. As an aside, both the mozzarella and smoked mozzarella from this stall are gorgeous too!
The following day we knocked up a recipe I’ve been meaning to make ever since Kate carefully transcribed it from the book for me, Jamie Oliver’s One pan Sweet Cherry Tomato and Sausage Bake. Kate and Ben cooked this for us back in January and it was *gorgeous*. I adore the J&M Craig tomatoes (from Carluke) available from the market- they taste the my mum and dad’s, straight off the plant and hot from the sun. It seemed correct to make the two meet in the middle.
You do need a LOT of toms though. But that’s all good with me.
It did seem rather wrong, this recipe, in that tomatoes are at their best at precisely the time of year that you don’t want to be roasting things in the oven (half the reason it tasted so good in January!). However, this is Scotland, and even in the spring and summer there are always grim, miserable days (like, ooh, as I write this!) where having the oven on is just fine. Slurp it up!
Despite being a bit of a foodie, I don’t think I’ve ever had real fresh ricotta. Could one sit it in a sieve, or wring it out in a tea-towel or something, to dry it out?
I do wish I could get to the farmer’s market in Haddington more often. (a) I’m usually playing squash on a Saturday morning, (b) Lizzie is usually in Haddington already on a Saturday morning and it seems very wrong to drive another car there, (c) it’s only once a month and it doesn’t sound as wonderful as the Embra one. Hey ho! I just have to read about it and get the pleasure vicariously……
It’ll be a while before all our crops will be ready, apart from the courgettes which are tiny, wonderful and picking in small quantities RIGHT now. Runner beans, climbing french beans, and wee tomatoes will all be cropping to perfection when we scarper to Alsace. Tough, eh? You will need to come and raid the garden maybe.
garden veggies sound wonderful…who needs a farmers market.
autumnal raids sound just fine. When are you going to Alsace? First I heard of it was through Granny! (although it’s possibly lizzy told me but I only have an academic diary which runs out this month and so I didn’t note it)