When Summer and Fall Collide

This week, I’ve harvested cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplant in plentiful numbers. And I also plucked a late planting of radishes and cut my first salad for the fall. The window when summer and autumn collide is small, but the bounty is intoxicating.

As simple as it sounds, I couldn’t resist just making a minimally dressed garden salad with arugula, tat soi, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes and basil. The radishes were still a bit spicy, but sliced thin they had just enough kick to play well with the tomatoes and cucumbers. A drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice was superfluous.

I think of Bolognese as hearty autumnal cooking. But with the plethora of summer tomato sauce this seemed like the perfect accompaniment to my salad. I added ground meat, carrots, celery, onions and garlic to the tomato sauce and let it simmer for an hour. And for my facebook friends — yes, I did make my own pasta even though the humidity was crushing.

Here's the link to the Bolognese Sauce, previously posted.

Here's the link to the pasta recipe, also previously posted.  And step by step photos to make your own pasta.