Cook Here and Now: Marco's Farmers Market Watch: May 17th

Buongiorno -- we had a fantastic event yesterday at the San Francisco Baking Institute: such diverse food and so many new faces! Thanks, Brian, for allowing us to cook there. The brick oven (see above) is simply irreplaceable when it comes to pizza.
It was exceptional to be able to repeat the pizza-themed event six months after our last one and rotate the ingredients so completely. Gone were the mushrooms, squash and potatoes, replaced by zucchini, basil, (some) tomatoes, arugula, pea shoots, fava beans, rapini, paneer, gorgonzola and (yes indeed!) cherries. Can't wait for our June cooking event!

What I found this week at the San Francisco Alemany farmers market:

I know some of you are not particularly fond of them, but organic beets are still around.
At our event someone (forgive me, I can't remember who it was... Margo?) made a crowd-pleasing pizza topped with a layer of roasted yellow beets, mozzarella and balsamic vinegar -- one of my personal favorites. If you buy them with the leaves still attached, you're getting two vegetables for the price of one. Cut those greens off and pair them with seasonal fava beans for a wonderful summer soup.
And if you're not incredibly fond of the taste of the tubers, use them as colorful garnishes on your dishes. Because of their highly-saturated strawberry-red hue, they'll offset any green vegetable.
Other beets recipes from Allrecipes or Epicurious.

Ronde de Nice zucchini are very sweet and so easy to stuff. Try this recipe.

Don't miss squash blossoms: they're hard to find away from farmers markets since they last about a day (they wilt fast). Aside from the classic Roman recipe (stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies and fried) they're also excellent in risottos or pasta. Just stir-fry an onion in olive oil, add 3 anchovies and let them melt. Add 1 pound of blossoms cut in strips (no pistil, please), 1/2 cup of Sauvignon Blanc and let simmer for 12 minutes, until the wine is almost completely evaporated. Boil the pasta and add it to the blossoms. Top with grated parmigiano reggiano to taste. Serve warm.

Yam leaf is available at the market -- a must in many East Asian recipes and delicious stir-fried. As usual, there is confusion between yam and sweet potatoes. These are actually sweet potato leaves (what we call yams in English are actually sweet potatoes; the yam is a completely different vegetable). Try these recipes from Saveur and Rasa Malaysia.

Dulcis in fundo (latin for that which is sweetest is at the end, or, less literally, the best for last): Cherries are plentiful. Go get 'em!
Andrea made us a pizza with cherry compote, sliced strawberries and walnuts at the end of our run last evening. That was the pizza everyone found that extra compartment in their stomachs for ... strange how that happens.