Most of the time, a single entrée plate with several different things on it, will offer two or three different experiences, and occasionally even more, but once in a great while, at least in my experience, they will all come together as slightly different aspects of a whole. This is what happened last night, with this wonderful meal.

• one beautiful 11 and a half ounce swordfish steak from Pura Vida Seafood Company, halved, marinated inside a small antique rectangular ironstone serving dish for a little more than 30 minutes, turning once, in a mixture of a few tablespoons of olive oil, much of a teaspoon of a pungent dried Sicilian oregano, which is sold still attached to its stems at Buon Italia, a pinch of dried smoked serrano pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, and a bit of thinly chopped garlic scapes from Norwich Meadows Farm, after which the swordfish was drained, both sides covered with a coating of homemade dried breadcrumbs and pan-grilled over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes on each side, or until barely cooked to the center, removed from the pan and arranged on 2 plates, sprinkled with a little local Long Island sea salt (P.E. & D.D. Seafood), with some of the chopped green section of the scallion], drizzled with a bit of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon and garnished with scissored garlic flowers from Alewife Farm (those very seasonal flowers were a small part of the preparation, but they make me very happy)

(those very seasonal flowers were a small part of the preparation, but they make me very happy)

• one pound of Red Pontiac new potatoes from Cherry Lane Farms that I had purchased exactly one month before, prior to our 3 weeks in Berlin (so, not so new, but they see to have even improved with ‘age’), boiled with a generous amount of salt until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried while still in the still-warm vintage medium size Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, rolled around inside in a bit more than a tablespoon of Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil, sprinkled with salt and freshly ground black pepper, garnished with scissored dill blossoms picked just the day before, from Lucky Dog Organic Farm

• one not very large head of Romanesco broccoli from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, broken up into florets, tossed with a little olive oil (not too much, to ensure some crispness and a carbonized finish), salt, pepper, and one crushed section of a dark dried habanada pepper, the mix spread onto a Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan and roasted at 400º for about 25 or 30 minutes, the outer leaves, trimmed, added just before the broccoli was removed from the oven, the mix stirred and arranged on the plates
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley) rosé, 2018 Oregon Rosé of Pinot Noir which we had ordered directly from Erath
• the music was a newy-discovered 1718 Neapolitan version of Handel’s ‘Rinaldo’, described as “a pastiche with a Mediterranean allure which Leonardo Leo assembled” 7 years after the premier of the original at the Queen’s Theater in London

It’s was a gorgeous bowl of pasta, and as tasty as it looked. The original recipe is from Sara Jenkins.

• two tablespoons of homemade bread crumbs heated in a small amount of olive oil inside a small vintage seasoned cast iron pan over medium heat until golden brown, set aside, the florets of a medium head of a Romanesco broccoli from Norwich Meadows Farm sautéed over high heat in a tablespoon of butter and half a tablespoon of olive oil inside a large, high-sided vintage copper pot until slightly crisp and lightly browned, then 3 tablespoons of pitted Gaeta olives (originated in Lazio) from Buon Italia, half a tablespoon of rinsed Sicilian salted capers, a smashed half clove of Keith’s Farm heirloom Rocambole Calabrian garlic, and a rinsed and filleted salted Sicilian anchovy were stirred into the pot until the acciuga had broken up, before 8 ounces of a Neapolitan maccheroncini, here, Setaro Torre Annunziata penne rigatoni, cooked al dente, were mixed in, followed by about half a cup of reserved pasta cooking water, the pasta stirred until the liquid had emulsified, seasoned to taste with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, arranged in shallow bowls, a bit of olive oil drizzled around the edges, and sprinkled with some of the bread crumbs
• the wine was a California (Monterey/Santa Lucia Highlands) rosé, 99 Barrels Derek Rohlffs Santa Lucia Highlands Rose 2017, from Naked Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Roberto Gerhard 7′: Harpsichord Concerto; Nonet; Concerto for Piano and Strings’

This is a delicious, very delicate dish, but from the evidence of my earlier posts on meals using this recipe it’s clear that I haven’t yet decided how it should end up on the plate, that is, the breaded side up or down. The recipe is clear about which side to cook, how and when, until just before the end, and then it goes silent when it’s time to arrange the cod on the plates.

Last night I went for the virginal look (coated side down), which is pretty cool, but the tastes and textures of the mustard, the parsley, and the crumbs, which coated the side resting on the plate, were still very much a part of the experience.

• one 16-ounce fresh cod fillet from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, brought to room temperature, cut into 4 pieces of the same weight (I’ve gotten very  good at that), seasoned with salt on both sides, then only the top side (the former skin side) brushed with a little French dijon mustard which had been mixed with a very small amount of water to make it easier to spread, the two pieces dredged in a mixture of homemade breadcrumbs mixed with some finely-chopped parsley from Westside Market, browned briefly on side coated with the mustard and breadcrumb mix in a little olive oil inside a tin-lined copper au gratin pan, transferred to a 325º oven and cooked until the fish began to flake, or for about 10 or 11 minutes, although it would be best to stagger introducing the pieces to the pan if some are much thinner than others, arranged on the 2 plates and garnished with micro purple radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge [the recipe is based on Thomas Keller’s ‘Wild Cod en Persillade‘]
• one box of Romanesco broccoli from Philipps Farms, where it had been stored carefully inside a cold barn since last year, that had already been broken up into florets, washed and dried, tossed with a little olive oil (not too much, to ensure a slightly crispy, slightly carbonized side dish), sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and part of a dried orange/golden dried habanada pepper], finely crumbled, spread onto a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan and roasted at 400º for about 25 minutes
• the wine was a California (Lodi) white, Evangelos Bagias Lodi Chardonnay 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3, Andris Nelson conducting the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, recorded live

Say it fast: ‘coda di rospo inguazato con broccoli romanesco‘.

We had returned from  a month in Berlin only 4 days earlier, where ‘monkfish’ is called Seeteufel [‘sea devil’], a response to its appearance when hauled from the sea. I’ve been enjoying using German names to describe food normally not specific to German cookery, but I wasn’t tempted this time, especially if I was also going to include the name of the vegetable that accompanied this wonderful dish.

And while both the German and the Italian names (the latter translates as ‘tail of a toad’) describe the fish itself better than the English, ‘monkfish’, none of them comes close to describing the taste of its flesh, its’ tail’, which is so much more pleasant than its scary mug.

• two 9-ounce monkfish tails from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, prepared using a David Pasternak recipe which includes M’hamsa Couscous from Tunisia (purchased at Whole Foods), olive oil, sliced garlic John D. Madura Farm, two 400-gram cans of really superb Mutti baby Roma tomatoes from Eataly (which are also available at Whole Foods), and cracked Sicilian green olives from Whole Foods, and 2 whole dried Sicilian pepperoncino from Buon Italia

• one small head of Romanesco broccoli from Alewife Farm, broken up into florets, tossed with a little olive oil (not too much, to ensure a slightly crispy, slightly carbonized finish), salt, pepper, and one crushed section of a dark dried habanada pepper, the mix spread onto a Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan and roasted at 400º for about 25 minutes, some slices of a fresh habanada pepper added to the pan a few minutes before the broccoli was removed from the oven, the mix stirred and arranged on the plate
• the wine was an Italian (Sardinia) white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2015
• the music was that of Carl Nielsen, including several chamber works the Symphony no 1 in G minor

This time I strayed so far from the urtext of a recipe, one which I have used many times before, that I won’t even go into its antecedents.

I’ll only introduce the ingredients.

It’s a mystery to me why pollock is always so modestly priced at the fish market, because it really is a great fish, with excellent flavor and wonderful texture, and it’s really easy to prepare. It’s also amenable to any number of creative treatments, although I’d recommend not getting too fancy, or its very real virtues might end up hidden.

The other mystery is the phenomenal shape of Romanesco broccoli, normally unnaturally geometric, but this time, in parts, almost diabolically contorted, and also two-toned!

• two 8-ounce pollock fillets from Pura Vida Seafood, dried, seasoned on both sides with salt and pepper, placed in a buttered copper au gratin pan, spread over the top with a mixture of soft butter, lemon zest, and some chopped red scallions from S. & S.O. Produce Farms [almost any other mild allium could be substituted], and one finely-chopped habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm, baked 12 to 15 minutes at 350º, removed to 2 plates, some micro red sorrel from Two Gus from Woodbridge briefly stirred into the pan juices, which were drizzled on top of the fillets, the dish finished with some more (fresh) micro sorrel
• fourteen sun gold tomatoes, from 2 different growers, Ryder Farm and Stokes Farm, heated with a little olive oil inside a small Pyrex glass pan until they had begun to soften, then seasoned with salt and pepper and added to the au gratin pan after the pollock had been removed, but before the sorrel had been added
• one magnificent Romanesco broccoli head from Berried Treasures, broken up into florets, tossed with a little olive oil (not too much, to guarantee a slightly crispy, slightly carbonized side dish), salt, pepper, and part of a seeded medium-hot red cherry pepper from Oak Grove Plantation, finely chopped, the mix spread onto one of my several Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pans and roasted at 400º for about 25 minutes [it was necessary to juggle the fish and the vegetable inside the oven on account of the different oven temperatures required], removed from the oven, stirred, and served
• the wine was a California (Napa) white, Matt Iaconis Chardonnay Napa Valley 2015
• the music was Vivaldi’s ‘Armida’, Rinaldo Alessandrini directing Concerto Italiano