prosciutto; barley malt spent grain pasta, sunflower greens

The main course was a vegetarian, even vegan feast, but there was some excellent prosciutto with some excellent lettuce in the antipasto.

  • La Quercia ‘Ridgetop Prosciutto’ (2 ounces) from Whole Foods Market, drizzled with a bit of Frankies 457 Sicilian olive oil
  • some delicious leaves from a small head of lettuce (I’ve now forgotten its name, but it came from Tamarack Hollow Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket), dressed lightly with the same oil, plus a bit of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon, Maldon salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
  • slices of a Balthazar sourdough rye purchased from Schaller & Weber

The main course was assembled around one of the really remarkable local pastas made by Sfoglini., and was finished with a delicious fresh green treat.

  • 8 ounces of Sfoglini Pasta Shop‘s Bronx brewery BxB radiators (“organic semolina flour, organic rye flour, water, Bronx Belgium Pale Ale barley malts (Muntons Maris Otter/Tipple, Wyermann , Castle Chateau Biscuit, Weyermann Caramunich I, Bries Malted Re, Bries Flaked Rye’, according to the package, and I’m like the fact that the mix differs a little from the one indicated on last package I used) cooked inside a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente (usually a challenge with Sfoglini products, probably because they all include ingredients beyond what are usually a part of artisanal pasta), drained, reserving 1 cup of pasta cooking liquid, and added to a sauce prepared by heating until softened a bit 3 or 4 chopped late-season garlic scapes from Berried Treasures Farm in a little olive oil inside a large antique copper pot, before adding 3 finely chopped small seasoning peppers (yellow grenada and green aji dulce from Eckerton Hill Farm, and a habanada pepper from Oak Grove Plantation), the mix of sauce and pasta stirred while roughly three fourths of a cup of the reserved pasta water was added, more or less, as necessary, until the liquid had emulsified, the sauced ‘radiators’ tossed with a few ounces of sunflower greens from Windfall Farms, arranged in 2 shallow bowls, drizzled around the edges with olive oil, and served