Many of the people who stopped by the Edible Paradise booth this past weekend at the Aptos Farmers Market asked about the focaccia we used for sampling. It is a bread I’ve made for years and years, and one of those dependable recipes I return to again and again — so, as promised, here is...Read More

If you’ve never eaten a perfectly ripe fresh fig, you’re in for a treat. With their tender skin, jewel-toned flesh, and rich, honeyed sweetness, fresh figs are one of summer’s most anticipated farmers market fruits. Right now, you’ll find beautiful figs at Minazzoli Farms, with Kashiwase Farms and Borba Family Farms bringing more as the...Read More

For generations, potatoes were one of the great workhorses of the kitchen: inexpensive, filling, easy to store, and endlessly adaptable. Somewhere along the way, though, the humble potato acquired a complicated reputation. It became associated with carbohydrates, blood sugar spikes, weight gain, and—perhaps most unfairly—with the nutritional baggage of French fries, chips, loaded baked potatoes,...Read More

Compound butter is one of the easiest ways to turn a simple summer meal into something memorable. Softened butter is blended with fresh herbs, garlic, citrus, spices, or other flavorful ingredients, then shaped into a log and chilled until firm. Slice off a round whenever you need it, and let the butter melt slowly over...Read More

When summer tomatoes are abundant, this simple roasted tomato sauce is one of the easiest ways to capture their rich, sun-ripened flavor. Slow roasting concentrates the tomatoes’ natural sweetness while garlic and fresh herbs add savory depth. Use any ripe tomatoes you have on hand—large slicing tomatoes, colorful heirlooms, cherry tomatoes, or a mixture of...Read More

Few herbs capture the flavor of summer quite like fresh basil. Its lush green leaves have a sweet, peppery fragrance that complements tomatoes beautifully—but basil can do far more than finish a caprese salad or flavor a pot of tomato sauce. At the farmers market, you may find several kinds of basil, from familiar Italian...Read More

Basil may be best known as the fragrant green herb tucked into pesto or layered with ripe tomatoes, but “basil” is not a single flavor. Depending on the variety, basil can taste sweet and peppery, spicy and anise-like, bright with citrus, warmly aromatic, or even slightly clove-like. Leaves may be broad and crinkled, tiny and...Read More

Fresh tomatillos bring a bright, citrusy tang to this creamy salsa verde, while ripe avocado gives it a smooth, velvety texture. Roasting the tomatillos and jalapeños adds subtle sweetness and smoky depth, creating a salsa that tastes far more complex than its simple ingredient list suggests. Serve it with tortilla chips, spoon it over fish...Read More

If you garden—or simply shop at the farmers market—you know how zucchini behaves this time of year. One day, it’s a neat, glossy little squash; seemingly overnight, it becomes a hefty green club capable of feeding a family of four. Farmers market tables are piled high, backyard gardens are producing faster than anyone can harvest,...Read More

For decades, eggs—especially their golden yolks—were treated as a shortcut to high cholesterol and heart disease. Newer research tells a more complicated and reassuring story: for most people, the egg itself was never the principal problem. There may be no food that has spent more time in nutritional purgatory than the egg. For generations, eggs...Read More