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Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

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Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

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Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

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Our 5 favorite (new) farmers market recipes

They all start with one beautiful thing — squash, peaches, corn, carrots or pickles — and let it lead the way

Published August 16, 2026 10:30AM (EDT)

A version of this recipe first appeared in The Bite, Salon's food newsletter. Sign up for early access to articles like this, plus recipes, food-related pop culture recommendations and conversations about what we're eating, how and why.

Last week, I wrote about the pasta that finally taught me how to shop at the farmers market. What I didn’t mention was that I ate the first quarter of my bowl standing up, at the bar top between my kitchen and the little alcove where our two-person table sits. I had simply stopped there. The cornbread crumbs were crisp, the chèvre was creamy, the squash had gone sweet and spicy and jammy after some time over low heat, and together they briefly became more interesting than wherever I had been headed.

I don’t want to overstate the revelation. I know what happens when you apply butter and patience to good vegetables. Still, that particular bit of alchemy never gets old to me. Especially when I realized that what was in the bowl had begun as a five-item farmers market haul, helped along by a few things I already had at home.

One excellent thing, I was reminded, is often enough.

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The five recipes below all begin the same way: with one market find good enough to make me want to cook — sweet corn, ripe peaches, September carrots, a jar of hot giardiniera — and a wickedly simple form to build around it. Pasta. Baked rice. Simple syrup. A rolled pastry. Snack cake. Some of what you need may come from the market, especially at one with eggs, cheese, dairy or even pizza dough on offer; the rest can happily come from your pantry or the supermarket.

The market doesn’t have to provide dinner. Sometimes it just has to provide the idea.

Jammy summer squash pasta with chèvre and cornbread crumbs

This is the pasta that finally taught me how to shop at the farmers market: Start with a form, bring home one or two beautiful things and give them somewhere to land. Here, grated yellow summer squash and onion spend the better part of an hour over low heat, slowly becoming soft, sweet and jammy. Miso, honey and red-pepper flakes deepen the mixture; pasta water turns it glossy enough to tuck itself into the tubes and folds of a sturdy short pasta.

This is not a 30-minute dinner, and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. Think of it instead as a very light weekend project, the kind you can tend occasionally while doing something else nearby. The toppings are market-flexible, too: Use whatever chèvre or goat cheese you find, whether it crumbles into little pillows or lands in soft clouds, and turn a leftover hunk of cornbread into crisp, salty crumbs.

2 medium yellow summer squash

2 medium yellow summer squash

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, olive oil or a combination

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, olive oil or a combination

Kosher salt, to taste

Kosher salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon white miso paste

1 tablespoon white miso paste

½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more to taste

½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more to taste

1 pound short, sturdy pasta, such as rigatoni, shells or cavatappi

1 pound short, sturdy pasta, such as rigatoni, shells or cavatappi

1 cup coarsely crumbled cornbread

1 cup coarsely crumbled cornbread

Olive oil, for the skillet

Olive oil, for the skillet

About 4 ounces chèvre, or more to taste

About 4 ounces chèvre, or more to taste

½ cup loosely packed chopped fresh basil

½ cup loosely packed chopped fresh basil

Prepare the vegetables: Grate the summer squash on the large holes of a box grater. Roughly chop the onion by hand, or pulse it briefly in a food processor until finely chopped but not puréed.

Prepare the vegetables:........

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