Posted by Chef Thomas Minchella
on Aug 31st, 2010 | 2 comments
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Nothing beats your local farmers market for the freshest ingredients!
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Well it’s off to the Sandy Springs Farmers Market. I promised my wife I would cook something different for dinner this weekend and yes, I always do the cooking. She didn’t want to go out for dinner so I thought the next best thing was for me to pick up some great food from the market. Thanks to Jeffrey Langfelder and his partner for bringing us the Sandy Springs Farmers Market and thanks to all the great vendors that come out each Saturday. It is really amazing how these two have managed to bring the community together. Families bring their children and pets to the market to see what the vendors have to offer. This week there was not as much produce because of the recent heat. The heat is not good for the farmers and tomatoes need temperatures below 90 degrees during the day and 70 degrees at night in order to ripen. So I set out for the market in search for dinner.
As I walked around the market I came across this gentleman making homemade cannolis, my all time favorite Italian dessert. This is M.E. Amore. He is a CIA grad who produces delicious northern Italian ready made pastas and raviolis while maintaining green standards in production and presentation.
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It is wonderful to see all the families come out and enjoy themselves each Saturday.
Live music is also provided.
This guy is amazing. Meet Steven Chase, The King of Pops. He started his business last year when he was laid off from his job.. He has a small cart with a colorful umbrella and makes different colored pops with unexpected ingredients such as peach made from peaches purchased at the market. He also makes chocolate sea salt, raspberry lime and the Arnold Palmer which is ice tea mixed with lemonade. You really need to try these and you can find the king of pops from 3:00 – 8:00 Monday through Friday at North Avenue and North Highland or at the Sandy Springs Farmers Market on Saturdays.
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Below are the ingredients I purchased for dinner. They consist of Lola’s Yummy Feta dressing, pasta and tomato sauce from Zio Micu’s Garden, Sausage from Sausage World, pesto from hope’s gardens, and French macaroons from “Crumb” for dessert.
I was looking forward to trying some of Zio’s pastas and sauces and his son makes wonderful sausage available at Sausage World.
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I purchased the cheese from Antico Mercante . They import cheese from Italy and have a wide variety. He also has wonderful imported olive oils and meats.
And of course my wife would not let me leave without dessert from “Crumb” a bakery. Wonderful French macaroons.
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Yes, they are loaves of chocolate cherry bread ( the small ones), my favorite!
So I took the sausage, seared it in a hot pan with a little olive oil and then simmered the sausage in the sauce from Zio Micu’s Garden.
The sauce was actually out of this world. A fresh tomato flavor with lots of spice, just enough to warm.
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A wonderful feta dressing from Lola’s.
I could not decide which was better, the pasta with Zio’s sauce and his son’s homemade sausage or
the pasta with some fresh pesto from hope’s garden.
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French macaroons from “Crumb” a bakery
I enjoyed Sandy Springs imensely!
Laura is one lucky lady!