picture of the skate, about a minute after being place in the new skillet

 

This was a fairly simple meal, and an extremely good one. Its remarkable goodness was actually a surprise for me. We enjoy skate and Romanesco broccoli very much, and I serve each with some regularity, but they were both more tasty this time than they had ever been before.

I can’t account for the exceptional goodness of the skate and its sauce, except to consider the fact this was my first outing with a beautiful new copper skillet, and that might have contributed something to the result.  The only thing novel about the preparation of the it-looks-like-cauliflower broccoli was the fact that I inadvertently tossed the florets with less olive oil than I had in the past, and that, combined with their feathery tops, meant that there was more opportunity for them to develop a nutty, slightly toasted flavor.

• two skate wings from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, each divided into two sections, coated with a coarse polenta which had been seasoned with salt and pepper, sautéed in olive oil for a few minutes, removed from the pan, the pan wiped with a paper towel, then some butter, chopped shallots from Phillips Farm, and sliced garlic from Berried Treasures introduced into it and stirred over a heat which had first been lowered, followed by the addition of a little more butter, juice from half of an organic lemon, and chopped parsley from Phillips Farm
• one fairly small Romanesco broccoli head from Phillips Farm, broken up into florets which were then tossed in a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and pepperoncino, spread onto a ceramic oven pan, roasted at 400º for about 25 minutes, removed from the oven, and, when the pan had begun to cool down, drizzled with olive oil and stirred

The entrée was followed by a small cheese course, because, well,.. because the cheese was there, and because we didn’t want one of my favorites, Karen Weinberg’s, ‘Shushan Snow‘, from her family’s 3-Corner Field Farm, to mature beyond its perfection.

• one section of a round of ‘Shushan Snow‘ sheep cheese from 3-Corner Field Farm, served with thin toasts made from a 4-day-old loaf of Grand Daisy Pugliese Pane, from Whole Foods

 

• the wine throughout was a Canadian (Quebec) white, Maurice Dufour‘s, Vinifie Chez Maurice Dufour Le Charlevoyou Muscat Osceola 2014 (the grapes are Osceola Muscat, a small, very winter-hardy white Muscat-type grape developed in Wisconsin, which M. Dufour purchases from Royarnois Estate, a vineyard a few kilometers from his home and chai [it’s a very limited production (we bought it à la maison, just outside Baie-Saint-Paul late last spring), and it’s not available in the U.S., but if it were possible I would buy a case today]
• the music was once again a streaming of the continuing WQXR annual 10-day, year-end Bach Festival, this time a broadcast of the composer’s dramatic ‘Johannespassion‘, BWV 245, in a performance by the Dunedin Consort which included an ‘ideal’ of the original Lutheran vesper liturgy (here, organ and congregational chorales, organ prelude, responsory, collect, blessing, another responsory, another chorale, and a final congregational chorale; it was awesome!

I had some eggs which I did not want to forget to use, so I decided I’d make a frittata for dinner.  We love frittatas. We are also big fans of most any vegetable, not least romanesca broccoli, as I’ve shown recently.   The next day in the Greenmarket I spotted a beautiful head of this art deco treasure which appeared to be exactly the right size for the purpose.

• one large thinly-sliced garlic clove from Norwich Meadows Farm, sautéed in heated olive oil in a seasoned 10″ cast iron pan for about 30 seconds, small flowerettes of romanesca broccoli from Hoeffner Farms, and chopped fresh hot red pepper from Oak Grove Plantation added and cooked for another minute, some of the torn green pointed leaves which enclose the head introduced just before the end, seasoned with salt and pepper, 2 tablespoons of water added, a pyrex glass cover placed over the pan, its contents cooked over moderate heat until the vegetable was crisp-tender, removed from the pan and set aside to cool a little before it was stirred into a bowl in which 8 eggs from Millport Dairy which had been beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper, the contents of the bowl poured into the original pan, which had been returned to the burner where it had heated a tablespoon of oil, the eggs and romanesca cooked over moderately low heat until the edges had set, sprinkled with a half cup of grated parmesan cheese and transferred to a pre-heated 350º oven for about 12 minutes  [the dish can be served warm, but not hot, or at room temperature]
• the wine was an Italian (Veneto) sparkling, Di Maria Prosecco DOC Famiglia Botter
• the music was Carl Heinrich Graun’s opera, ‘Montezuma‘ 

 

The dinner was something of a improvisation for that evening, using ingredients I had just found hanging around the kitchen (except perhaps for one very deliberate move, ahead of time, to defrost some frozen crab cakes).  That may explain why, in the end, there was a lot going on with this entrée, but it was pretty tasty nevertheless.

• two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (ingredients: crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, parsley), heated in a heavy iron pan, 3 to 4 minutes to each side, sprinkled with fresh fennel seed from Lani’s Farm, and drizzled with a little olive oil, served on a bed of three different colors of heirloom tomatoes from Berried Treasures, chopped, which were combined with salt, ground black pepper, part of one tiny, finely-chopped fresh hot red pepper from Roots to River Farm, and chopped fresh oregano leaves from from Rise & Root Farm
• one medium radicchio from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, quartered lengthwise, placed in an unglazed ceramic oven pan, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, roasted at 400º for about 12 minutes, turning once, finished with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and scattered with shavings of Red Cow Parmesan cheese from Eataly
• portions of the core of the three small Romanesco broccoli we had enjoyed two nights ago, along with sections of their upper cores, sautéed – in steps – in olive oil (along with two small squashed cloves of garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, which had earlier begun to turn brown), until the vegetable was tender, seasoned with salt and pepper, a small amount of water added and then emulsified with the remaining oil
• the wine was a Slovenian (Vipava) white, Guerila Vipavska Dolina Pinela 2012, from Appellation Wines & Spirits
• the music* was, in succession, an August Klughardt piano quintet from 1884, several pieces by Pascal Dusapin, including an extraordinary virtuoso trombone concerto, ‘Concerto for Trombone “Watt” ‘, and some amazing piano pieces of Franz Liszt (the very modern, ‘Nocturne for Piano, S 203 “Schlaflos, Frage und Antwort”‘ was a huge surprise to me), performed brilliantly by Andre Watts  for the evening

*Note: If you click onto this link, and if you have a Spotify account, you can see our entire playlist for the evening.

I’ve decided to call it, or at least file it under ‘broccoli’, rather than ‘cauliflower’, but it doesn’t really matter what I call it. Romanesco is very beautiful, and very tasty.

I think most people, when they first come across a head of this vegetable, have trouble believing it’s actually a natural form (in this image it looks quite unreal, or at the very least, magnified a zillion times). I think that was also my own experience, but once I was convinced there was nothing fake about them, I’ve found it difficult to avoid taking one home whenever I see them.   The food photographer Laura Anderson has described Romanesco as “The helical cruciferous vegetable, which looks like the lovechild of cauliflower and broccoli with some alien DNA thrown in…”.

Also, we note that it’s definitely chartreuse, a color which is not actually that common in the vegetable world.

a gathering of small Romanesco on the table at Lucky Dog Organic Farm

 

The recipe (which I halved) on which I based the meal was published in New York magazine over ten years ago, and it was attributed to Sara Jenkins; the source of the ingredients is described below.  I improvised by adding some diced fresh hot peppers.

• three very small heads (they were pretty cute) of Romanesco broccoli from from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, two small heads of garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, a handful of Kalamata olives, a few capers, one salted anchovy fillet from Buon Italia, 9 ounces of Afeltra Penna Rigata from Eataly, a few tablespoons of bread crumbs I made in my kitchen, and a surprising amount of finely-chopped hot peppers, of various hues, from several greenmarket farmers
• the wine was an Italian (Tuscany) white, Villa Antinori Toscana 2014
• the music was Q2 Music streaming, specifically, ‘Generation XYZ: 24-Hour Marathon of Composers Age 40 and Under‘, which the station had repeated

The recipe I used for this meal was published in New York magazine ten years ago, and it was attributed to Sara Jenkins, then of 50 Carmine, today of Porchetta.  It’s delicious.  I’ve enjoyed preparing it several times before pretty much as it was written, but this time I added some sliced pear-shaped yellow baby tomatoes to the top of each serving, mostly because I thought I wouldn’t be able to use them in anther meal before they had passed their prime.  I also didn’t think their juicy raw freshness would compromise Jenkins’ formula.  I have to say now that the tomato really isn’t necessary, and although I felt compelled to use them this time, they should actually have been tossed in the warm bowl after the drained pasta was added to the sauce, rather than added later.

Oh, did I mention that Romanesco is one of the most stylish vegetables you will ever take home from the market?  It’s actually perfectly art deco.

• Romanesco broccoli (yes it looks like cauliflower, including the leaves cradling it, while still unseparated) from from Norwich Meadows Farm, garlic from Garden of Spices Farm, Kalamata olives, capers, salted anchovy fillets from Buon Italia, Afeltra Penna Rigata from Eataly, bread crumbs made in the kitchen, prepared as indicated above, with sliced pear-shaped yellow baby tomatoes from Berried Treasures added to the serving bowls
• the wine was an excellent light Italian red, Per Alessandra Barbera d’Alba 2011