Summer, Italian Style

We have three great vegetables  in your share this week that really work well together: eggplant, sweet onions and fennel. These three will get you ready for tomatoes and peppers that are coming right around the bend.

We started harvesting eggplant last week and this vegetable goes with almost anything you can roast, grill, fry, or bake. The skinnier Asian varieties have thin skin and don’t need to be peeled.  Our favorite way to enjoy these is split with liberal amounts of olive oil brushed on before almost blackened on the grill.  Mark Bitman, NYT food writer has a great article on everything that can be done with grilled eggplant here.

Sweet onions are a summer treat. They don’t store like the ones you find in the produce aisle and really do best raw or with minimal cooking. The have a low sulfur content (that make you cry onion scent) and blend well with light summer produce like summer squash, cukes, and eggplant.

Fennel, like eggplant, really shines on the grill. Halve or quarter this bulb and slather with olive oil before hitting the grill. Cook until it starts to brown and is tender when pierced with a knife.  Roasting in the oven with eggplant is also great. Toss with some summer onions and you are in business.

What’s in Upic:

Flowers

Herbs

What’s in the share with week:

Fennel

Kohlrabi

Eggplant

Sweet Onions

Cukes

Zucchini

Lettuce

Chickories

Arugula

Chard