Pimientos de Padrón

By Carrie Floyd

August 22, 2007

The pickup: Red Harvest peaches, Italian prunes, blackberries, red potatoes, green beans, lemon cucumbers, pimientos de Padrón, and a couple of extraordinary watermelons: Tangerine Dream (orange on the inside) and Superbowl (shaped like a football and oh-so-sweet).

The results: All of the fruit we ate out of hand or with yogurt and honey, saving the melons for dessert. I turned the green beans and red potatoes into summer potato salad.

I adore the cucumbers and consumed most of them whole, like apples, and tucked the rest into salads and sandwiches.

As for the pimientos de Padrón — mild, Spanish green peppers that look like unpickled pepperoncini — I followed the suggestions from the good folks of Viridian Farms and sautéed them with a splash of olive oil in a hot cast-iron skillet.

Once the peppers were browned and blistered, I emptied them into a bowl and sprinkled them with sea salt. With a glass of rosé, they were a delicious prelude to dinner.