The August basket
This is what I'd bring home.
Feeds one big appetite for a week: every dinner, and lunch from the leftovers most days.
Ripe figs
1 pint
Buy them ripe. Plan to eat within two days.
Fig toast, breakfast
Red bell peppers
3–4
The house flavor starts here.
The jar, the sheet pan, the charred plate
Eggplant
1 large or 2 small
Roasts into something completely different.
The sheet pan, the charred plate
Cherry tomatoes
2 pints
Still abundant. Still worth it.
Pasta, the sheet pan, rice bowls
Jalapeños
3–4
The sauce needs two. Keep the rest.
The hot flavor, the jar, the drink
Zucchini
3–4 medium
They carry the week without asking much.
The charred plate, rice bowls
Basil
1 bunch
Same as last month. Buy a pot if you can.
Pasta, the drink, the weekend
Nectarines
4–5
The peach's quieter cousin. Almost as good.
The weekend meal, breakfast
Proteins
Thick pork chops
2, bone-in, 1¼ inches
Pork loves stone fruit: the sweetness and acid of a charred nectarine cut through the fat at the bone. Salted early, it stays juicy.
The weekend meal, the charred plate, fig toast
Halibut
1 lb
Lean, delicate fish wants something juicy and acidic cooked around it — burst cherry tomatoes, not a heavy sauce.
Pasta, a rice bowl, the charred plate
Chicken drumsticks
2 lbs
All dark meat and skin, drumsticks can take the hottest, longest roast — and the peppers and eggplant collapse in their fat.
The sheet pan, a rice bowl, lunches
Prosciutto
4 oz
Salty, cured pork wants something sweet and soft against it — a ripe fig, torn burrata. The salt makes the fruit taste sweeter.
Fig toast, the charred plate
Also buy 2 limes, 1 ball burrata, sherry vinegar, a wedge of watermelon, sparkling water
From your kitchen pasta, rice, sourdough, Greek yogurt, eggs, olive oil, garlic, honey, flaky salt, salt, black pepper
Around $35–50 for the produce and $50–65 for the proteins, all from one well-stocked supermarket. Everything in this edition is on these lines — nothing else to buy.