Home late from a concert tonight.  This quickie meal is just a matter of assembling stuff, and if you’re very lucky, it’s mostly stuff already on hand.

• Rana mushroom-filled ravioli from Eataly, quickly boiled, drained and shoved around in a broad pan in which sliced baby leeks from Rogowski Farm and Kalamata olives from Whole Foods had been briefly sautéed in olive oil, then a bit of pasta water added, the liquids emulsified, and the whole assemblage placed in shallow bowls with roughly-grated Parmesan cheese dusted on top
• the wine was an Italian red, Rosso Piceno Colonnara 2012, from the Marche
• the music was that of the entire two-CD set of Jordi Savall’s very frisky ‘Guerre et Paix’, which could make any meal a fest! (listen, and look at those beautiful cornetts!)

Note to self: This is an unbelievably easy and extraordinarily delicious entrée, employing two of my favorite things, so where has it been all these years?

This image of near perfection doesn’t look real even to me, and yet it’s a dish I put together myself a few  hours ago.  Among the several other delights and rewards in preparing this amazing surf, turf, and colewart entrée was the knowledge that I was including a late fall vegetable in a meal being served at the end of the first week of March.  Woot!  Mainly however it was the pleasure we had in savoring both its taste and its textures.

• late this afternoon, while trying to scare up something which would both include two Greenmarket prizes of the day, and which could also be assembled in only a few minutes after we had returned from a concert, I found on line the general outlines of the dish I ended up with;  this is Emma Ribiero’s terrific recipe, and these are the sources of the ingredients I used:  sea scallops from Pura Vida; collard greens from Rogowski Farm, cut as thin ‘noodles’ (I came home today with Ron’s last few leaves); Colameco’s uncured diced Pancetta from Whole Foods; and one minced Christopher Ranch garlic clove from Eataly
• the wine was a French white, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Domaine La Haute Fevrie 2013
• the music was Rodion Shchedrin’s 1999 Piano Concerto No. 5

This simple tuna preparation has appeared on our table repeatedly, but the equally simple leek and tomato combination which accompanied it tonight, a modified version of an old Mark Bittman recipe, had never made an appearance before.  It turned out to be a standout, totally equal to the delicious tuna.

The two dishes are equally simple to put together, and demand surprisingly few ingredients, but there the similarity in preparation ends.  Because they are very different when it comes to the kind and amount of attention they need in the minutes before being put onto plates, they seem to be made for the cook who wishes to avoid being harried.  The tuna demands only about three minutes of cooking, but that has to happen just before it’s served;  the vegetables on the other hand can be assembled together leisurely and put into the oven an hour before (in fact they can be served merely warm rather than hot, guaranteeing there will be little last-minute stress for the cook).   The combination makes a great entrée to serve to a couple of guests.

• a 12-ounce section of tuna loin from American Seafood Company, cut into two pieces, rubbed on both sides with a mixture of fennel seed and dried peperoncini, ground together, seasoned with salt, and pepper, then pan-grilled for only a minute or so on each side, finished with a good squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of olive oil
• one 15-ounce can of chopped San Marzano tomatoes spread onto the bottom of a ceramic oven pan, covered with some olive oil, four large leeks from S.&S.O. Produce Farms trimmed and cleaned, sliced lengthwise into quarters, placed onto the tomato, seasoned with salt and pepper, the dish baked for almost an hour, until the tomato had become saucy, the leeks very tender, finished with chopped parsley from Whole Foods
• the wine was a Portuguese white, , DAC, Dão 2013
• the music was an electrifying, intoxicating music theater piece by Rodion Shchedrin, ‘The Enchanted Wanderer‘

This will be the last entry until the middle of the week.  Barry and I are going to be in Philadelphia for two days, so I’m going to get to eat out!

For tonight’s secundi, we shared part of a wild salmon fillet, and a bunch of not-so-wild kale.

• wild Coho salmon fillet from Whole Foods, roasted in butter in a shallow enameled cast-iron pan (using two tablespoons of butter for about 13 ounces of salmon), seasoned, roasted for about eight minutes, turning once, after five minutes, removed to warm plates and sprinkled with salt, pepper, chopped parsley from Whole Foods, and a melange of several other fresh herbs, already chopped, which I could no longer identify tonight
• shallots from John C. Madura Farms, garlic from Samascott Orchards, and rinsed salted capers, all sautéed, in their turn, in olive oil, then joined by chopped winter kale from Rogowski Farm, which was sautéed until tender, the dish finished with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was an Austrian red, Stadlmann Pinot Noir 2012
• the music, spread over much of both courses, was Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7

 

We had started with a primi which was a slight alteration to small amount of the pasta left over from dinner last night.  Surprisingly, it was even more delicious the second time around.

• To the origninal pasta e ceci I added the lighter green parts of a large sheath of leek which I had sautéed until wilted, some more chicken broth, and a dusting of mixed herbs, before I again grated some parmesan cheese over the top
• the bread, to soak up the sauce, was a little bit of lightly-toasted pita left from today’s lunch
• the wine was an Italian white, Campi Flegrei La Sibilla 2013 

Yesterday I mistakenly described this meal as vegetarian, and potentially vegan (I’ve corrected the post), but I had completely forgotten about the half dozen little anchovies thrown in at the beginning of the process (a neglect which is the usual, almost sad fate of the glorious anchovy – in spite of its negative reputation with some – which is to make good things even better, ideally without being much noticed)

This dish is genuinely vegetarian, although it’s definitely not vegan.

Ah, the leek.  It seems that I’ve been building up to Saint David’s Day for weeks, although unwittingly. All those meals which boasted  baby or full-size versions of the Welsh national emblem now seem to have represented more than just gustatory delight.  It was only after I had decided this morning to sacrifice one more full-size allium sheath for our first meal of the day, and checked the date, that I remembered March 1, as the date of the 7th-century Welsh patron saint’s death, was a national feast day celebrated almost ever since.  By the way, while I was assembling this lunch Barry read to me the Wikipedia entry for the saintly monk;  I can say with some certainty that whatever his charms may have been otherwise, I would never have been seduced by his punishingly severe monastic rule, although it was one which I have to think was “More honor’d in the breach than the observance”.

The impetus for this morning’s search for a dish which would include at least one of the large leeks I still had in the crisper had been simply the desire to use my stock before we left for a short stay in Philadelphia, but we had a delicious lunch, and the recipe is definitely a keeper.

• that recipe appears here, but I took the liberty of substituting fresh tarragon for the fresh chives I no longer had on hand.  I also used six eggs rather than ten, and reduced the quantities of the other ingredients proportionately;  the potatoes I used were Yukon Gold, from Norwich Meadows Farm, the eggs were from Millport Dairy, the tarragon was from Eataly, the leek from S. & S.O. Produce Farms, and the thyme from Eataly
• the ‘bake’ was accompanied by a few toasted bread slices, cut from the heels of three different breads