Twenty Bag | Oct 7

How great to see tomatoes back in The Twenty Bag this week, especially given the higher prices I’ve noticed in the stores. Cucumbers and parsley present some new options. Lunchbox peppers are back, along with Harleston’s multi-colored potatoes, eggplant, squash and zucchini. Okra rounds out this varied harvest, offering plenty of inspiration for great dishes!

Charleston chef Jeff Robinson’s Lemon Chevre Ravioli with Sahuaro Pepper and Heirloom Tomato employs a cool technique to draw great flavor from farm fresh tomatoes, producing a unique no-cook sauce to pair with Rio Bertolini’s wonderful handcrafted pasta.

Chef Craig Deihl of the former Cypress Lowcountry Grille, renowned as much for his charcuterie as his seasonal menus, shared his recipe for pickled okra in an interview with me a few years ago. This will be an opportunity to try my hand at pickling!

The squash and zucchini are fast friends, combining to make a quick side dish when sauteed with a few slices of onion or baked in this casserole from Helen Fields of Fields Farm on Johns Island. Ina Garten, of the Barefoot Contessa fame, turns the zucchini into savory pancakes.

I will be slicing up the cucumbers and some red onion super-thinly and tossing them in white wine vinegar and a spoonful of sour cream—my Polish family is big on cultured milk of all kinds— and a little dill would be nice, too, garnishing this cool cucumber salad.

Speaking of herbs, I’ve been waiting for the parsley to come around again for my linguine and white wine clam sauce recipe that takes full advantage of a no-shame shortcut to make this restaurant-quality dish accessible any day of the week!

A quick search of sweetgrass + grits for potatoes and peppers should give you some more ideas, same for the eggplant mix—that said, I plan to experiment with a Serious Eats recipe for baba ganoush and add it to my lineup of good eats. Has anyone out there made it?