From Market to Table: Elevate Date Night with Fresh, Local Ingredients

Hi friends! Welcome back to another month of Whatcheescooking, the culinary klatch where I bring you guys my favorite recipes, products, tips and tricks to bring restaurant-quality meals from my table to yours. This month, we’re dating our partners while supporting local farmers! 

How lucky are we to live in such a fantastic agricultural area? Here in the beautiful Inland Northwest, there is a Farmer’s Market for every day of the week chockFULL of gorgeous and lovingly grown local proteins, veggies, flowers, and foragables to take home. Not only is it a fantastic opportunity to engage with and support local vendors and farmers, it’s also a fun (and tasty!) way to spend a couple of hours. 

Most weekends, my hubster and I have one of our market dates at the Liberty Lake Farmers Market. We love to go and see what we can put together out of the market and our garden for a nice dinner for the two of us. You guys can call me strange, but there is something about getting your groceries at the Farmer’s Market that just makes it a more romantic errand than a Costco run.

Date Night Pasta with Roasted Wild Mushroom Pesto and Lemony Garlic Breadcrumbs

This beautiful wild mushroom pesto is SUPER versatile, and is packed full of earthy umami goodness! I love to cook my eggs in it, use it as a sandwich spread or on my avocado toast, we eat it as an accompaniment for steak night, and adore it with pasta. For this particular date night, I served it with bucatini pasta, a GORGEOUS New York Strip from Ramstead Ranch, and a couple of glasses of our favorite red blend from Montescarlatto Winery. 

Wild Mushroom Pesto Pasta

Ingredients:

1 package of your favorite pasta (I used Bucatini for this date night)

⅔ cup reserved pasta water from cooking your pasta 

4 oz each Morel, Maitake, and Chanterelle Mushrooms, cleaned well

(Honestly, whatever is available at your favorite farmers market will be absolutely delicious. These are just the ones that called to me!)

1 TBSP Fresh Thyme

 4 cloves of garlic, peeled

½ cup pine nuts, toasted lightly and cooled 

Juice of 1 lemon

⅓ cup of Parmesan cheese

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

½-⅔ cup of olive oil 

½ cup fresh parsley 

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Step 1: First things first, let’s prepare the pesto.  Line a sheet pan with parchment paper, and preheat the oven to 400°. In a large bowl, lightly coat the mushrooms and garlic with a couple tablespoons of avocado oil, and toss onto the sheet pan. 

Step 2: Roast mushrooms and garlic in the preheated oven until mushrooms are cooked through and begin to brown. 

(This can totally be done in your air fryer too! Same temp, same technique!)

Step 3: Once the shrooms and garlic have cooled, add into your food processor along with the toasted pine nuts, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, parsley and thyme. Begin to blend on low, slowly streaming in the olive oil until the pesto begins to smooth out. 

Step 4: Stir in parmesan cheese, taste the pesto, and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Set pesto aside until pasta is almost ready to add to a sauté pan to finish cooking.

Step 5: Prepare pasta to package directions, removing pasta when it is just al dente, be careful to not overcook and DO NOT RINSE. I’m sorry for all caps guys, but it’s a big pasta no no. 

Step 6: Once pasta is done cooking, bring a large sauté pan to medium-low heat and add a couple TBSP of the prepared mushroom pesto. Allow the pesto to warm slightly and add the par cooked pasta in, tossing to coat the pasta with the pesto. Add in the reserved pasta cooking water, and continue to carefully stir the pasta over medium low heat until the sauce has cooked down and thickened up. 

Step 7: Taste the finished dish for seasoning before  serving it so you can verify that it is, in fact, delicious. I love to serve it up with a generous portion of lemony garlic breadcrumbs on top for a lovely crunch! (See recipe below to enter textural nirvana.)

Lemony Garlic Breadcrumbs

You guys, this is one of those textural components that takes any bowl of pasta, beans, or salad no matter how humble, to the next level. It’s also super simple and affordable to make a large batch to use throughout the week, and keeps beautifully in the fridge in an airtight container! 

Ingredients 

1 ½ cups Panko Crumbs

⅓ cup good quality butter or avocado oil

½ tsp garlic powder

Zest of ½ lemon

2 TBSP fresh parsley, chopped finely

Salt and pepper to taste

Step 1: 

Heat butter or oil over medium low heat in a sauté pan until butter is melted. Add garlic powder and breadcrumbs and stir to coat the breadcrumbs well with the butter. 

Step 2: Continue to sauté until the breadcrumbs are toasted lightly, remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Once breadcrumbs are cooled, mix in lemon zest and fresh parsley, stirring to incorporate everything well. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready for use.

Farm Fresh Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Ingredients:

Crumble

12 tablespoons unsalted butter

 2/3 cup sugar (I prefer ½ brown sugar, ½ white sugar, but anything you have on hand will work!)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup oatmeal

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling

3 cups washed and sliced strawberries

3 cups washed and sliced rhubarb

1 cup sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

½ cup flour 

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375°. Toss together the filling ingredients in a large bowl, and spread into a baking vessel of appropriate size. Set aside while you assemble the topping. 

(I use my favorite deep dish pie dish, but I’ve made this in a casserole dish too!)

Step 2: Grate cold butter into a large bowl using a chilled cheese grater. 

Step 3: Add sugar and flour. Using a chilled pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. 

Step 4: Top the prepared filling with the crumble mixture, and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the filling is bubbling away, and the crumble is golden brown and delicious.

We LOVE to top this with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, and it is ABSOLUTELY delicious hot or cold. Strawberry and rhubarb are a match made in sweet and tart heaven, and are two of my favorite farmers market finds! 

Let’s cherish the opportunity to support our local farmers and vendors while indulging in the culinary delights of the farmers market. Whether it’s a romantic date night or a fun outing with friends and family, these market-fresh recipes are sure to elevate your dining experience and bring the flavors of the season to your table. Happy cooking and happy market exploring!