I thought it would be so easy to come up with a rather simple modern recipe for sweetbreads, but I was surprised at how few resources there were, and none of those I found looked interesting, or as uncomplicated as I wanted, at least in the time I had allotted myself.

Apparently these innards themselves haven’t been considered modern, at least until recently.  I’m probably not the only one who’s been afraid to cook ris de veau, although not for lack of an appreciation of their culinary pleasures.  I attacked them in my own kitchen once, many years ago, working with the very elaborate and very precise instructions supplied by Julia Child.  I didn’t get lost in the process, and they were delicious, but I must have thought they just weren’t worth the trouble (as with the time I made tripe, also by her formula).

Maybe I had just forgotten about them, since they aren’t found next to the chops and cutlets in the neighborhood meat case (to be fair, sweetbreads are very perishable, and so would generally have to be ordered, if available at all.

I do order them, in good restaurants, almost every time I see sweetbreads on a menu.  For the record, it’s been one of the few appetizer or entrée ‘centerpieces’ I don’t hesitate to order when eating out, since I don’t expect to be preparing it myself (oh, the hardships of an active, and at least somewhat adventurous home cook – and his perfect muse).

Then last night I found myself searching everywhere for sweetbread recipes, in my files, book shelves, and on line. After a while I noticed that a couple of hours had flown by, and I now didn’t have much time left to maneuver.

I ended up going with what seemed to me the simplest and least constructed recipe of the few I had come across. I was surprised that it turned out to be probably the most old-fashioned one. It was from my half-century-old copy of  Craig Claiborne‘s ‘The New York Times Cookbook’ [$25 new here; $10 to $15 here, at Strand]. Years after I had bought it, as I moved into other styles of cooking, and thinking Claiborne was a bit, well, ‘old-fashioned’, I had relegated it to the top shelf in the kitchen, where it was both out of sight and out of mind, only returning it to the company of its ‘colleagues’ when I had a new, large bookcase built in another room.

Lately I have found the 700-page volume surprisingly useful, for its catholicity (including dishes now obscure), and for its tendency to cut to the chase, omitting a lot of the baggage which accompanies many more contemporary recipes (like, I suppose, what I’m writing now).

The offal was good (love how that sounds), very good, and I’m now not going to be timid about initiating a future acquaintance with this wonderful cut – and with new recipes.

• one pair of sweetbreads (approximately 9 ounces) from Consider Bardwell Farm, soaked in ice water for almost two hours, drained, placed in boiling water to cover, adding a little lemon juice, the heat lowered, simmered 10 minutes, drained and immediately cooled in fresh ice water, then all connective tissue and covering tissues carefully removed, the oven preheated to 350º while one small-to-medium scraped carrot (from Whole Foods) and one smallish yellow onion (from Norwich Meadows Farm), sliced, were added to 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter in an oval copper au gratin pan, along with one small fresh bay leaf from Westside Market, one sprig of parsley from Whole Foods, and a sprig of thyme from Foragers Market, cooked slowly until the onion was softened and golden, 1 teaspoon of flour sprinkled over the pan, the sweetbreads added on top of the vegetables and herbs, along with 3 tablespoons of white wine, 1/3 of a cup of good chicken stock, salt, pepper, heated until simmering, covered and placed in the (350º) oven, baked 20 minutes, uncovered and baked another 10 minutes, the sweetbreads transferred to 2 plates, 1 tablespoon of fino sherry stirred into the pan, the sauce served over and beside the meat [Claiborne writes, from the posture of classic French cuisine, that the sauce should be strained, meaning it would be only a liquid, but I don’t always feel like abandoning the vegetables, especially when they haven’t really been overly cooked]
• medium carrots from Alewife Farm, simply scrubbed, then rolled in olive oil, salt, and ground pepper on a small ceramic oven pan, roasted at 400º for about half an hour, or until tender, sprinkled with chopped parsley from Phillips Farm
• Savoy cabbage from Hoeffner Farms, many of its outer leaves layered together on a board and sliced very thinly, tossed with salt, pepper, and three flattened juniper berries, sautéed in a little butter over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until the leaves were tender and had begun to brown and (hopefully) crisp slightly at the edges
• the wine was a great French (Alsace) white, Pierre Sparr Pinot Blanc Alsace 201the music was Bellini’s ‘La Sonnambula’, a gorgeous recording with Cecilia Bartoli, Juan DiegoFlórez, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, the Orchestra La Scintilla conducted by Alessandro De Marchi
• the music was Bellini’s ‘La Sonnambula’, a gorgeous recording with Cecilia Bartoli, Juan Diego Flórez, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, the Orchestra La Scintilla conducted by Alessandro De Marchi

Over in the fresh pasta department at Eataly on Friday, it seemed that Luca Donofrio was getting a head start on Valentine’s day by featuring a red pasta. I was seduced.

Once it had been cooked however, the gorgeous pasta, Casunziei, lost some of its color, but it was still rather valentine-ish in its loveliness, and especially the loveliness of its taste.

The pockets are a Piedmontese specialty similar to pierogis.  These were half-circle dough pouches, in this case I believe beet ravioli, with a filling of radicchio, Speck, and ricotta.

• I boiled them gently and briefly, then moved them around in the simplest of sauces, some rich ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘ heated with some fresh sage leaves, also from Eataly, and a sprinkling of poppyseeds

• the wine was an Italian (Sicily) white, Fuori Strada Grillo 2014, whose gorgeous soft packaging presumably means a smaller carbon footprint than that of the glass bottles that have been around for maybe half a millenium
• the music was Hans Abrahmsen, Concerto for Piano (2000)

Winter fish: Delicious, and an excellent accompaniment to a cold February evening, this meal felt and looked custom-ordered for the very cold weather outside, but the fish was actually the only ingredient that wasn’t already waiting inside the kitchen.

• two sliced leeks from Eataly and one ounce of chopped bacon from Millport Dairy tossed with a third of a cup of olive oil, placed in a non-reactive pan and roasted for 10 minutes before a teaspoon or more of chopped sage, also from Eataly, was added [thyme is an alternative, and in fact the herb specified in the original recipe] along with 1/4 of a cup of white wine, the pan returned to the oven for 20 more minutes, before the leek mixture was topped by two halves of a nearly one-pound fillet of King Whiting (Silver Hake) from Pura Vida, which was drizzled with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, the pan again returned to the oven and left there until the fish was cooked (about 10 more minutes), when it was removed and garnished with more chopped sage (or thyme, if using)
• red fingerling potatoes from Berried Treasures roasted with rosemary from Stokes Farm, tossed with a small amount of micro arugula greens from Lucky Dog Organic
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, ROX Scott Peterson Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2014 
• the music was Telemann’s ‘Flavius Bertaridus’, with the Academia Montis Regalis conducted by Alessandro De Marchi

It was Valentine’s day, so I included a little deep red on the side.

This was our breakfast-but-also-lunch on this rather sweet holiday.  We don’t have bacon and eggs every Sunday, and tomatoes are rarely a part of it when we do, but this fast-breaker was put onto the table even later in the day than usual, and therefore it was lunch as well as breakfast.  I also thought the bright red fruit would be a somewhat electric reminder of the holiday just beginning.

The bottom line was that I think tomatoes and eggs are just about as natural a pairing as bacon and eggs, and including all three in an early afternoon meal made it something of a feast betimes.

Once I had sat down and was well into its enjoyment, I thought to myself, and told Barry, I felt it was one of those meals you want to go on, and on. I suspect every element of it had addictive properties.

• the eggs, topped with chopped thyme from Foragers Market, Maldon salt, and good telicherry pepper, freshly ground, were from Millport Dairy Farm, as was the double-thick smoked bacon in whose residual fat they were fried; the tomatoes were Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, slow-roasted with garlic from Keith’s Farm and abundant pungent dried Italian oregano from Buon Italia, finished with chopped parsley from Eataly; the kale micro greens, undressed, were from Lucky Dog Organic Farm; the toast was from three different breads, a small amount of each: the heels of one days-old sourdough loaf from Rock Hill Bakery and a two-day-old semolina loaf from Eataly, and a fresh Bien Cuit baguette from Forager’s Market baked, well, today

Mark Bittman called this recipe, ‘Ligurian fish and potatoes‘; it was the basis for the one I’ve been using for years.  It’s a classic, or at least I think so, for its ability to showcase, mostly unadorned, the taste of a superb wild fish, as well as for the ease with which it can be prepared.

This time I added some rather flashy micro greens in lieu of the parsley specified in Bittman’s original recipe.

• one 13- or 14-ounce cod fillet from American Seafood Company at the Union Square Greenmarket, prepared along the lines of a recipe from Mark Bittman which I came across almost 12 years ago: I cut the fillet into two pieces and laid them both on a bed of coarse sea salt and completely covered them with more salt, before setting them aside while I sliced, to a thickness of less than 1/4 inch about 12 ounces of small German Butterball potatoes from Tamarack Hollow Farm, scattered them in a baking pan with a scant tablespoon of olive oil, salt, and pepper, and cooked them for 30 minutes or so in a 400º oven, or until tender, meanwhile thoroughly immersing the cod in several changes of water and drying the two pieces before placing them in the pan on top of the potatoes with a little oil drizzled on top and some freshly-ground pepper scattered over them as well, the pan returned to the oven for 8 to 12 minutes (depending on the thickness of the cod), garnished with ‘Hong Vit‘ micro Asian radish greens from Windfall Farms
• a handful of the very last of the curly winter kale from Tamarack Hollow farm, sautéed in olive oil in which one medium clove of garlic from Keith’s Farm, split, had first been allowed to sweat for a few minutes
• the wine was a French (Languedoc/Pays d’Oc) white, Demoiselles de Castelnau Cuvée L’Etang Picpoul de Pinet 2014
• the music was David Matthews’ Piano Concerto Opus 111