The farmers market on Sunday is even better than the one on Saturday.  I bought vegetables that looked good to me, brought them home, then figured out what to make after that.  One meal was a simple pan-roasted corn risotto from Todd English.  Great corn, very good Vialone Nano rice, and the remainder of our leftover caramelized onions.

Of course, I used a corn water broth instead of chicken stock, and less than 1/4 cup of cheese, in this case a Pecorino instead of Parmigiano.  Our friend Laura joined us for dinner Saturday night for this meal.  Li Veli Verdeca was the wine for this dish.

Sunday’s dinner was a bit different.  As much as I love Italian cooking, there are times when I long for the comfort food of Greece.  Long, slow cooking of vegetables, beans and grains, rich, thick olive oils, sumptuous dining — even without the lamb I used to enjoy.

Two years ago there was a fascinating article about the island of Ikaria in Greece, where the islanders live remarkably long and healthful lives, and it appears that diet has a great deal to do with it.  We have a cookbook friends gave us a few years ago, The Country Cooking of Greece, and Sunday was a day when I leafed through it to find a dish in that style, using many of the ingredients from the market.  What I found was Ikarian Soufico, which I used as the basis for Sunday supper.

I varied some of the ingredients — such as fewer zucchini (only had one), added diced Swiss chard ribs and sorrel — and I boiled instead of fried the potatoes and simmered the whole dish a lot longer than specified, but it was excellent.

The wine was marvelous, a 2011 Le Piane Maggiorina, from Piemonte.  It’s made from Croatina, Uvarara, Vespolina and Nebbiolo grapes, and it is from the Colline Novaresi DOC region.  Superb!