As much as we enjoy planning dinners, sometimes we just want to assemble a quick meal from fresh ingredients at the farmer's market. How often do you get to the many markets here in the Bay Area? If you haven't been in a while, we'd like to urge you visit your neighborhood market and taste the treats on display. Scrumptious stone fruits such as cherries and nectarines are at the peak of their flavor right now, and we've seen the first ears of corn. Even tomatoes have begun to appear, though they're still a little wan.

Great ingredients make great food, and all you have to do is get out of their way. Here's a casual summer meal we assembled for the test kitchen staff. This weekend, find your own inspiration, invite some friends over, and enjoy a casual meal outside or at least with the windows open (unless, like us, you have kamikaze kitties).

We went foraging at the Ferry Plaza market. Say what you will about this Emerald City of marketplaces (*cough* overpriced *cough* rampant yuppies *cough*), but it's hard to leave without overflowing arms of delicious produce.

Photos by Melissa Schneider

For a novel appetizer, we steamed the unshelled, fresh chickpeas we found at Short Night Farm in front of the Ferry building. Two leaves enclose a minuscule green version of a garbanzo bean. It's like the Hulk, but in reverse. None of our cookbooks offer ideas for fresh garbanzo beans—who ever sees them?—but we decided to treat them like edamame. Steam the pods for six minutes, and toss the warm legumes with ample amounts of olive oil and flavorful salt. As you pick out the uber-cute green globes, the oil and salt will coat your fingers and you'll transfer that seasoning to the fresh chickpea. We devoured a small carton in about twenty minutes, prompting the decision to call them "crackpeas."

That's a simple snack, but it seems complicated next to another appetizer we made: Fatted Calf's ceccioli on a slice of Della Trattoria's polenta loaf (get to the market early for that popular bread). The heady mix of pork, fat, and cracklings spreads easily over the bread for a mouthwatering treat.

The corn guy from Brentwood has shown up at the building's southwest exterior corner. His ears go fast, so stop by first thing when you get to the market. Raw corn kernels, shaved off an ear with a sharp knife, can form the base for a salsa or a salad. Add boiled discs of fingerling potatoes, prosciutto (we used homemade duck ham), a dressing made with Rancho Gordo's hot sauce, and shredded basil to make a colorful salad that pairs nicely with a chicken breast. How much of everything should you add? We usually find that if you mix until the colors and ingredients look balanced, you're pretty close to a taste-bud harmony as well.

For dessert? You don't need anything more than fresh Honi-Kist nectarines we found at Kashiwase Farms. The meaty fruit drips a nectar of sugar and intense nectarine flavor. If you want to get a little fancier, buy some cherries (sour cherries, alas, are gone for the year), and make clafoutis or cobbler.

What farmer's market trophies have you found recently? What casual meals have you assembled from your morning's haul? Let us know in the comments.