Root Source Challenge

I can eat clams cooked any way. Summers on the coast wouldn’t be the same without clam baskets and clam bakes. And in the colder months, they are essential to seafood chowders (red and white).

Rosemary is the perfect herb for this time of year. It gracefully bridges the gap between summer and autumn with an earthiness that complements harvest season foods: potatoes, tomatoes, corn and squash.

A favorite radio host of mine once said that “sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet corn.” I’ll let you make your own decision on that one, but this time of year I can’t help but daydream about the starchy sweet kernels, soaked in butter, and gnawed off the cob.

What makes Italian sausage “Italian?” Is it the pork? The fennel seeds? The bits of red pepper?

Oh man, it’s my favorite time of year: tomato season. Sure, you can get tomatoes year round, but they’re best in August, just off the vine and still warm from the sun. So, the subject of next week’s challenge is the sweetest and smallest of the tomatoes: the cherry tomato.

Does anything crunch more satisfyingly than a fried tortilla chip? (I’m pretty sure all the crumbs in my keyboard are from tortilla chips.) Freshly made tortillas are always best, but I’ll gladly take most bagged varieties as well.

What can’t you do with plums? There are the obvious tarts and crisps; the glazes and sauces for pork chops and chicken; plum brandy and wine; plum jam, plum jelly, plum sherbert. (Not plum pudding, though, which doesn’t have plum in it at all.)

However we use them, plums are our favorite stone fruit of the summer.

Tarragon’s mild anise-y flavor is distinctive enough to make or break a dish. An especially good friend to eggs and chicken, tarragon is a good all-around spice to impart a delicate earthiness to a dish. As James Beard wrote, “If ever I had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around.”

Though it may look delicate, the flavor of watercress is hardly retiring. Whether served in salad or cooked in soup, it has a distinctive bite that demands to be noticed and used well.

I still have the Ricard that I got after touring the company’s pastis factory near Marseilles, in 1993. Pastis is the refreshing, anise-flavored apéritif popular all over France but especially in southern France. Usually, you just dilute it with a little water and drink over an ice cube or two.