Third Thursday Potluck: August Menu

Entertaining, How-To, In Season, Summer
on July 17, 2012
Third Thursday Potluck
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Welcome to The Third Thursday Potluck, a monthly supper club that meets every third Thursday in Nashville, Tenn. Gigi Gaskins and I started this extraordinary potluck in June 2009 as a way to foster community.  Now headed into its fourth year, Third Thursday continues to bring together a cross-section of folks bearing delicious local, seasonally driven dishes. There are no assigned dishes. No RSVP! We enjoy the creative sparks that tend to happen in a less formal structure. True to the notion of “Potluck,” there’s an element of surrender in that, but it always works out.—Nancy Vienneau

August 2012

There is nothing like potluck to showcase the glories of the summer garden: lemon cucumbers and Kirbys, French radishes, fat bulbed scallions, peaches-and-cream corn, the first blush of tomatoes. The riot of colors alone is dazzling, but the fresh picked taste is the true reward.

This month, salads rule the table in cunning combinations. Tomatoes, basil, and peaches harmonize under a pour of olive oil. With sweet pop, blueberries make an unexpected appearance in a marinated cucumber dish. Mustard greens, young and raw, form the biting base for a radish salad tossed in citrus vinaigrette. A Vietnamese-inspired dressing brings vibrancy to bok choy layered with pineapple and peanuts.

We are thrilled to share a new way to use that most prolific summer vegetable: the zucchini. To your repertoire of zukes baked, stuffed, sauteed, and scalloped, we invite you to add our “surprisingly wondrous zucchini sauce."

The recipe came to us from afar: blogger Rachel Roddy, a British ex-pat living in Rome. The Romans prize zucchinis and eat them in myriad forms. One healthful, cream-free way is braised and pureed into a lush green sauce. Its simplicity belies its good taste. Spooned over egg pasta, dusted with parmesan, dotted with pesto—we think you’ll find it to be surprisingly wondrous too.

AUGUST MENU (* recipes below)

  • Pasta with Zucchini Sauce and Watercress Pesto*
  • Fresh Dill Feta Quick Bread*
  • Tomato-Peach-Basil Salad
  • Sweet-Corn Sweet Millions Salad
  • Penne Primavera
  • Napa Slaw
  • Bok Choy Peanut Pineapple Salad*
  • Spicy Egg Salad
  • Meatballs in Herbed Tomato Sauce
  • Blueberry-Cucumber-Corn Salad
  • Chop-Chop Salad: tomatoes-avocados-peppers-onions
  • Sweet Corn and Tomato Salad
  • Biscotti Regina*
  • Tapioca Pudding with Dulce de Leche Sauce and Mangos
  • Fresh Raspberry-Greek Yogurt Tart
  • Pineapple Ice Cream