It’s here! Autumn arrived at precisely 8:43 a.m. yesterday in Vermont. It doesn’t feel like fall yet, but we’ve got some color beginning and the promise of more to come. The leaf peppers are starting to arrive to view our annual colorful foliage show, in a couple of weeks our roads will be full. The straw people have appeared on lawns and farm stands, looking quite chipper, at least until it rains!
But the Autumnal Equinox is not so much a line between the seasons as a time of transition. There will still be hot days in the 80s F. with blue skies, or cloudy, chilly weather that definitely feels like fall. Many areas will have frost, and that same spot will have sweltering hot a few days later. Unpredictable at best.
A splendid time of year
It’s a splendid time to hit the farm stands and farmers markets, which are also in transition. There are still a few summer stragglers hanging on like zucchini and beans, lots of sweet peppers, root veggies, greens, herbs (although probably the last of the tender basil), winter squashes and pumpkins, cauliflowers and broccoli, autumn strawberries, raspberries, plums, a few stray peaches and blackberries, and lots and lots of apples. There’s still a bounty from which to choose, and all the supporting characters as well: cheeses, meats, eggs, honey, maple syrup, flowers for the table, and beer and other spirits, in great variety.
Let’s pick up lunch!
We also love the food booths as well, and this year the tiny little village hosted lots of diversity including American barbecue, traditional breakfast dishes, pastries, a French crêpe food truck, and specialty booths featuring Korean, Mexican, Japanese, Mideastern, Nigerian, and Ethiopian dishes. Quite a lot of choices for lunch on market day!
However, it is all bittersweet; in a few weeks, the markets will end for the season, along with our weekly ritual. The seasons turn, and our routines change.
A great way to get the week’s shopping done
A week’s vegetables gathered, and it’s time to think about what this basket asks us to make this week, because they always rule the menu. With some beautiful locally made fresh pasta in hand, our Sunday lunch was destined to revolve around this star with a lot of the other market players represented. It looked like a rainbow when we got home and emptied our bags. That diversity in color is a good thing on the nutrition front, and I always try to remember that the darker the color in a vegetable, the higher the mineral count. So if there’s a choice between a white potato and a blue one, the blues win, unless there is a compelling reason to use the white, perhaps if creating Le Diner en Blanc? I have a friend who attended one of these events, where the location is secret and everyone wears white. I’ve never been, but am always waiting for one to happen in my area, and I have the outfit all picked out.
The plan, sort of
But I digress. We’ve had the lovely sweet Italian frying peppers for many weeks, and if the heat holds, we’ll have them even longer. Lots of these went in the pot. The broccoli family is happy again with the cooler nights, and potatoes will be our constant until next growing season. I don’t usually put potatoes in a pasta dish unless it is part of the dough in a gnocchi, but we all loved the combination. Bless the basil! It’s still hanging in there.
Because I had them on hand
I also slipped a few cherry tomatoes from my plant that is still heavily producing; no one leaves my house without a bag of them, or two.
Let the vegetables lead the way
I’ve given you lots of options here, because it all depends on what you find that is freshest and best at the market on the day you shop. So, I’ve used a purple onion, but you can certainly use a leek or even shallots. Use a firm potato, and a very sweet pepper, or make it even more your own and use a pepper with a little heat such as a poblano, there are lots of these beauties about as well. Basil is wonderful here, but mint would also be nice, or lovely chives. Also, chose whatever pasta catches your eye! If you use a dried pasta, simply adjust your pasta drop time to the beginning of the sauté.
This is a quick dish to make, simple, feeds a crowd, and so fresh and flavorful, not a single person asked me where the meat was. I served this with a lovely side salad, and beautiful locally baked bread. Who could ask for anything more?
Happy hunter-gathering, at least for a few more weeks!
Fresh Farmers Market Pasta with a Mix of Autumn Veggies
• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 purple or yellow onion, or 1 large leek, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 to 6 anchovies, minced, OPTIONAL
• 1 lb. purple or red potatoes, diced
• 1 carrot, sliced
• Sweet Italian Frying Peppers, or sweet minis, sliced
• 1 small yellow summer squash, cubed or sliced
• 1 head broccolini, broccoli rabe, or broccoli, chopped
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 1 lb. fresh fettuccini or spaghetti or whatever you like
• Fresh basil leaves, about a cup
• Parmesan or toasted anchovy or garlic bread crumbs to top
Prep all your veggies and put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Put on some good music, and enjoy the process, it can be quite meditative.
Warm the olive oil over medium high heat, and add the onion, stirring frequently until softened and just starting to brown at the edges. Add the garlic and a bit of salt and pepper and stir for about 30 seconds, until you start to smell the fragrance. I also added a few anchovies here, chopped, but if you want to keep this vegetarian, simply omit them. They add a ton of subtle but delicious flavor.
Add the wine and stir to deglaze, then toss in the potatoes and carrot, cover, reduce heat to simmer, and continue cooking until they are just starting to get tender, stirring now and then.
Add the peppers, squash, and broccolini or broccoli stems, season with salt and pepper, toss well, and cook until the stems of the broccolini are tender, it doesn’t take long, so drop the pasta in the water to cook. Mine only took two to three minutes, so everything happens quickly now.
Toss in the heads of the broccolini to the vegetables, and rip up the basil leaves, stir well, cover and let cook a minute or so, just until the heads are crisp tender.
Once the pasta is cooked, remove from the pot to the vegetables, adding some of the pasta cooking liquid to create a little creaminess as you stir it in. Taste for seasoning.
Plate and garnish with either Parmesan or vegan cheese, or luscious anchovy breadcrumbs from my last post. I used both because I love the crunch and flavor.
I’ll see you at the market next week! There will be cider doughnuts, I’m told and apple everything.
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This looks just wonderful – think I will try to make it this weekend. I don’t have anchovies, but I may thrown in a teaspoon of Fish Sauce as a substitute.
That sounds like a great substitution. Fish sauce also adds so much flavor.
So colourful !
Thank you! I was aiming for the rainbow!
Looks delicious!! Love cooking with farmer’s market veggies especially pasta!
Thank you. These pasta dishes are always delicious, and so well received!
So good!
Thanks Leslie! It was delicious. Next time you are here, we’ll create one of these together!
Such a great mix of ingredients in this tasty dish. You are the queen of vegetables! 🙂
Thank you Ronit! There were lots of clean plates!
I made pasta yesterday too. Courgettes,spinach, heirloom tomatos, fresh corn, onion, garlic mixed with farfalle and sprinkled with Parmesan. For dessert? Baked stone fruit hot out of the oven with vanilla ice cream. Our Farmers Market still has plenty of summer produce and we take advantage of it!
Like strawberries, some of which were used to make margaritas. Mabon, NFL, and good friends = good times. (Too bad the Cowboys and the 49ers lost their games, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.)
What a wonderful feast! I bet the corn was scrumptious in the dish, and I’m now thinking about the strawberry margaritas!
Hi, Dorothy – I love our Farmer’s Market too – and I am grateful that it remains open all year round (sadly with less and less fresh vegetables). Your Market Pasta looks incredible. I look forward to giving it a try.
Thank you, it was delicious.
Our market opens about once a month in off-season, very scaled down and mostly the farmers and a few crafters. Nice though, mostly roots and greens, for which we are certainly grateful.
Looks delicious
Thank you! Simple but very satisfying.
Who could ask for anything more is right! Oh, my mouth was watering as I read this post. And what a market you have. Crepes for lunch? Yes, please! But then this just might be bred in the bone. 😉
A vegetarian feast for sure!
Thank you Jan! It did feel like a feast, from the shopping and cooking through to the eating.
Dot, love pasta dishes with nothing but vegetables. Your recipe has me salivating.
We ate heartily yesterday, and enjoyed every bite!
I’m pretty sure I’d like your farmers’ market. 🙂 This looks delicious. When Laurie Graves and I met last week, we were talking about you and your delicious recipes. 🙂
I thought my ears were ringing Judy! But in the nicest way possible.
It looks so beautiful there!!! Love this fun pasta.
Thank you Mimi, you would love our little market. It’s small, but very nicely filled.
When I enter the kitchen, I always bring you along, and I tell whoever will listen, “Dorothy says…. or Dorothy advises that…,” and they moan. This looks fabulous as usual and I love this part, “Put on some good music, and enjoy the process, it can be quite meditative.” You’re killing me! I’m usually a totally stressed out cook who adds wine to anything that doesn’t look right. Thanks for the inspiration my friend. Hugs, C
Ah, that’s such a sweet thing to say! Thank you my grateful friend.
You have to eat, unless you are a billionaire you have to cook, so why not enjoy the process as well as the food? You can’t go too wrong, it’s only dinner, and most mistakes are pretty tasty too! Plus, a lot of people will leave you alone while you are in the kitchen…
That’s my kind of a feast! A good excuse to buy some fresh fettucine.
Absolutely. Hope you make it your way and enjoy every bite!
Love this recipe! Features 2 of my favorite things: vegetables and pasta! Can’t go wrong with fresh veggies from the market.
Two of my favorite things as well, especially if potatoes are part of the plan.
I am looking forward to the Farmers Markets starting up again as well. (I could use a bag of tomatoes from your abundant crops. 🍃🍅)
You got them! They are waiting for you on the counter, just let yourself in!
I just made something very similar using lots of the farmstand with the pasta. I let the veggies make the sauce but now thinking some anchovies would have added amazing flavor and I have some in the cupboard. I shall do that next time! Thank you for the inspiration!
Your presentation is delightful!
Thank you Nancy! The veggies sing and the pasta is very appreciative!
Who needs meat with a rainbow of fresh vegetables!!
Jenna
I know! Not missed at all, or even mentioned.
What a lovely basket of goodies you have there! A rainbow indeed! And what a delicious and colorful plate too! Absolutely delicious! 😋
Lovely. I find it’s fun to see what’s fresh and appetising at the market, and let this inspire our choice of meals fro the next few days.
We often find something unusual, too!
We have to take advantage of the bounty of the season.
Yes, it is going fast!
It really does look like a rainbow in a bowl with all those colorful vegetables.
I know, so lovely to see all that color!
This pasta dish looks so good–I love everthing about it!!! 🙂
Ah, thanks Nancy! It’s a whole lot that I love too!
This looks so delicious! I love all the vegetables, and the idea of combining them with pasta is very appealing. Just this morning, believe it or not, I fried up onions and peppers as one would do for fajitas, and had it for breakfast on toast. It sounds weird, but it was really good. Thanks for the recipe.
Oh, I think that sounds like a wonderful breakfast!!
It wasn’t the main point of this post, but I somehow managed to get myself totally distracted by the statement that autumn arrived at “precisely 8:43 a.m. yesterday in Vermont.” I had never thought about autumn beginning at different times in different places. Next thing I knew I was doing a search trying to figure out what time it arrived where I live. Still not sure. I think that the time zone determines the time autumn begins, so it would be an hour earlier in the central time zone, but I’m not sure.
You can enter your nearest city at the chart in this site: https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/seasons.html?n=410
Don’t you just love farmers markets? You sure have a fantastic one to shop at, even the bees love it. Your pasta salad is so colorful and looks delicious!
Thank you Diane! It’s encouraging that farmers markets are growing in scope around the country.
For sure, your town has the best Farmers’ market imaginable. Love your yummy pasta too.
Thank you AOC! They even have great coffee!
Fall is a perfect time to let the vegetables shine. Living in Florida Fall-Winter are fantastic seasons for vegetables. Thanks for sharing!
Enjoy those beautiful veggies!!!