We love the innovative pastas, often with locally-sourced-ingredients, produced by Brooklyn’s Sfoglini Pasta Shop, and this beet fusilli was no exception, but, and it’s entirely to their credit, I’ve come to the conclusion that the ‘flavored’ products especially can best be appreciated with a minimum of additions. This also makes them ideal as a quickly-prepared and impactful primo.

Also, butter would probably be good. Yeah, butter.

• eight ounces of Sfoglini beet fusilli with a sauce composed of sliced segments of celery from Foragers and spring onions from Norwich Meadows Farm, a pinch of home-dried golden Habanada chili purchased fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm last year, a very small amount of dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, all the ingredients heated in a little olive oil inside a high-sided tin-lined copper pan until softened or they had become aromatic, the pasta then slipped into the pan, stirred with some reserved pasta water until the sauce had emulsified, divided into two shallow bowls, sprinkled with toasted home-made breadcrumbs, scattered with micro arugula from Windfall Farms, a bit more olive oil drizzled inside the bowls around the edges of the pasta
• the wine was a California (Clarksburg) white, Karen Birmingham 2015 Pinot Grigio
• the music was Mozart’s ‘Die Zauberflöte’, in a performance by La Petite Bande, conducted by Sigiswald Kuijken, with soloists Isolde Siebert, Suzie LeBlanc, Christoph Genz, Cornelius Hauptmann, Stephan Genz, Marie Kuijken, Philip Defrancq, and Stephan Schreckenberger

We had planned to go out to dinner with visiting relatives this night, but after the exertions of the Women’s March they had begged off, pleading fatigue. There was no time to pick up the ingredients for a substitute, but fortunately I had a package of very good pasta in the freezer, which I try to always have on hand for just such ’emergencies’.

• a 10-ounce package of frozen Rana portobello-mushroom-and-ricotta-filled ravioli from Eataly, boiled in a large pot of water for two minutes, drained and slipped into a high-sided tin-lined pan, in which a little sliced celery from Foragers, an equal amount of sliced baby leek from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, a large pinch of golden home-dried Habanada pepper, also from Norwich meadows (acquired fresh last season), had been heated for a few minutes, little more than sweating the vegetables, everything stirred together over a low flame with some of the reserved pasta water, seasoned with freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, sprinkled with a little scissored chives from Two Guys form Woodbridge and chopped parsley and mint form Eataly, the pasta and sauce placed in shallow bowls and scattered with toasted pine nuts from Whole Foods Market, and topped with micro arugula from Windfall Farms
• the wine was an Italian (Tuscany) red, Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Toscana Rosso 2013
• the music was Vivaldi’s ‘Teuzzone’, performed by Jordi Savall’s Le Concert des Nations 

I don’t often cook a whole fish. I’m very comfortable with cooking these wonderful creatures, but a whole fish still seems a little scary. Actually, after the experience of this meal, I realize that it’s the process of filleting that may be the most frightening part.

There’s also the thing about how I ended up cooking it: While I admit that I probably should have broiled this excellent porgy, and my reason for not doing so may have been irrational, I just didn’t feel comfortable about leaving it that far out of sight during what I still regard as a very sensitive period in the cooking process.

In the end the fish was totally wonderful, even if the presentation, thanks to my inexperience, was something less than I had hoped for.

 

I’ve included this less-than-exciting picture of the red kale here mostly as testimonial to the remarkable husbandry our local farmers: We are now in January and I’m still able to bring home at least a limited variety of fresh green vegetables. This member of the noble and enormous family Brassicaceae was purchased January 13, and it may be at least as remarkable for having stayed in shape in our refrigerator for a full week after that.

• one cleaned whole 25-ounce porgy (sparidae, pogy, pagrus, mishcup, sea bream, sheepshead, scup, orata, Seebrassen, dorade, besugo, or havsruda, among other appellations) from Pure Vida Seafood, washed and dried, tail and fins removed, head left on, the cavity stuffed with thin slices of lemon and parsley sprigs, the body coated with olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt and freshly-ground pepper, pan grilled in a long cast iron pan over medium-high flame[s], turning once, fora bout 17 minutes, removed and filleted, each section arranged on a plate, sprinkled with chopped mint and parsley from Eataly and scissored chive from Two Guys from Woodbridge, drizzled with olive oil and a little more lemon juice
• red kale from Norwich Meadows Farm, sautéed in olive oil in which 2 bruised and halved garlic cloves from Tamarack Hollow Farm had first been allowed to sweat and barely begin to brown, the greens seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little more olive oil
• the wine was a Portuguese (Dão) white, Quinta dos Roques Encruzado, Dão 2014, from Astor Wines
• the music was Alfred Schnittke’s ‘Concerto Grosso for Cello No. 2, with Torleif Thedéen, cello, Lev Markiz conducting the Malmö Symphony Orchestra 

It was a very German meal, for no particular reason. Thinking about it retroactively however, I could say there was the relationship between the date (the eve of an installation of a proto-fascist regime in Washington) and the historical memory which recalls the food culture of the nation which was the last one to pass over that line.

It was also real comfort food, a meal would be very familiar to most Germans: nothing fancy. I think it gave us both a little comfort, if only for the evening.

• a section of Sülze [we ended up eating twice the amount shown, it was so good] from Schaller & Weber, served with a little sliced red onion from Norwich Meadows Farm; 4 Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods; and some micro arugula from Windfall Farms, drizzled with good olive oil
• slices of a ‘corn rye’ boule (‘unbromated wheat flour’, rye flour, caraway, rolled in cornmeal, and all grains local) from Hot Bread Kitchen, along with some wonderful, rich Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter (with12 grams of total fat per tablespoon [virtually all other brands of butter available in this country have only 11, and it does make a major difference])

The second course was built around leftovers, specifically a mix of leftover cooked vegetables which might normally have been tossed after they had served their first grand purpose in flavoring the meal for which they had first been assembled. I hadn’t tossed them, knowing they could flourish again.

• a combination of chicken and beef broth reconstituted from jars of Better Than Bullion, a very small amount of the juices which remained from the squid we had enjoyed on Wednesday, and the finely-chopped cooked vegetables I had retrieved from the braising liquid that had remained from Sunday’s goat shoulder, all heated together then served in low bowls, garnished with fresh chopped parsley from Eataly
• there was more of the bread, to ensure that all of the soup could be appreciated

• the wine throughout was a French (Alsatian) white, Domaine Joseph Cattin Pinot Blanc Alsace 2015, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music throughout was Alfred Schnittke’s ‘Concerto Grosso No. 2’, with Torleif Thedéen (Cello) and Oleh Krysa (Violin), Lev Markiz conducting the Malmö Symphony Orchestra

It was like they’d known each other all their lives; the cephalopods and the pak choy got along famously last night, after only a few minutes of acquaintance, er, ..prep.

Anything fresh and green is hugely appreciated at farmers’ markets in January, so this beautiful vegetable must have gone fast. It was almost mid-afternoon when I arrived at one of my favorite vegetable stalls in Union Square. Unable to be choosey, I ended up with a complete range of sizes; regardless, they all pretty much cook the same.

• a large enameled cast iron pan heated until quite hot, its cooking surface brushed with olive oil, and, when the oil was also quite hot, about 14 ounces of rinsed and dried squid from Blue Moon Fish in the Union Square Greenmarket, bodies and a few tentacles, arranged in it very quickly, immediately sprinkled with some super-pungent dried Sicilian oregano from Buon Italia and part of a crushed dried Sicilian pepperoncino, also from Buon Italia, and a very small bit of home-dried heatless, orange Habanada pepper purchased fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm, followed by a drizzle of a few tablespoons of juice from a local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and some olive oil, the pan placed inside a pre-heated 400º oven and roasted for 4 or 5 minutes, removed, the squid distributed onto 2 plates and ladled with their cooking juices after they had been transferred to a sauce pitcher, with halves of another, tiny local lemon-lime served on the side
• pak choy (also called bok choy) from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed, sliced lengthwise, wilted in olive oil along with 2 garlic cloves from Lucky Dog Organic Farm which had already been browned very lightly in the oil, the greens seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with a little more olive oil
• the wine was an Italian (Sicily, Palermo) white, Corvo Insolia 2015 from Philippe Wine and Spirits, on West 23rd Street less than one block from our table
• the music was Mieczyslaw Weinberg ‘s Symphony No. 3, Thord Svedlund conducting the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra