Issue link: http://southshoremagazine.uberflip.com/i/205938
great tastes ~ Fruit Center Marketplace Star of Excellence 2013 SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED: Crisp, cool salads, fresh picked sides and fiery homemade salsa are three easy ways to stretch late summer produce into easy fall suppers. by Jessica Benson Early fall in New England is a time of abundance. The days still have plenty of light, schedules are packed with back-to-school activities and our tables are heavy with the produce of the harvest months. But where there is more, there is also, thankfully less. The bounty of early fall still allows us to take advantage of the very last of the late summer produce. Vegetables so fresh and delicious, that "cooking" dinner ends up looking less like an hour of labor and more like a few minutes of simple assembly that makes the most of the yields of the season. It's a simplicity that lends itself to more enjoyment and less work; which is a welcome reprieve as "real life" gets back into full swing. Fresh, delicious and needing minimal intervention from human hands, tomatoes and corn stand out amongst the late summer/early fall produce as the seasonal superstars we wait all year for (no offense, zucchini). Maybe, if you're lucky, you have a generous friend with a bumper crop of heirloom tomatoes or your property abuts a field high with ears of delicious sweet corn. However, if you're not quite so fortunate, have no fear, the Fruit Center Marketplace is stocked full with a variety of locally grown conventional and organic produce and we've got everything you need for a simple, delicious supper. In their freshest state corn and tomatoes demand little input from us. Tomatoes, sliced thick and drizzled with olive oil and salt are a delicious and nutritiously loaded side dish. Fresh-shucked corn, steamed or grilled, is absolute perfection with a smear of butter and a sprinkle of salt. They are such seasonal stars due in part to their versatility: they work quite nicely with other components (mozzarella and basil are nice supporting players) but they are certainly tasty enough to take center stage solo. In these three simple recipes we keep our interventional minimal, letting the bounty of the season shine through, with just a little bit of assembly from us. Less work on the meal means more time to get back into the swing of things, as the lazy days of summer yield to the hustle of fall. 72