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Note to self:  This is a great dish, but the amount of cabbage suggested in the recipe which inspired it should be reduced dramatically, by half, or even more.   I had not been looking at the forecast at all, so I didn’t choose this entrée because we were expected to get the first real taste of colder weather…

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Note to self: The vegetable side dish may be difficult to recreate, since I’ve never before come across tromboncino (or zucchetta), but it was at least a terrific one-off, and a great companion to the excellent fresh scallops.  Keep a sharp eye out for this vegetable.   I really did splurge a bit, although unintentionally, in ordering…

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a wonderful pairing, even before the wine was poured   The meal was a treat, and had I not purchased all the ingredients myself, I might have had a hard time believing that all ingredients together probably set me back only 11 or 12 dollars, and that’s for two people!  Even considering that it was a dinner prepared at home,…

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extravagantly simple, and also simply lavish   There could hardly be a simpler meal than this one.  In addition, few could be easier to make, if it weren’t for the amount of attention needed to see that a large number of simple eggplant ‘coins’ are properly  cooked before they’re tossed with an extraordinarily good artisanal pasta. I found the very…

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yeah, way Teutonic   While I have to get it out of my system ever so often (cooking a genuine German meal), this time it was partly driven by my unanticipated accumulation of ingredients which, at least considered together, seemed to suggest no other choice.  It looks like a lot of food in the image above, and it was; we had leftovers, and…

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  I had picked up a single large flounder fillet at the Greenmarket around midday on Saturday, and then put it safely in the refrigerator, but by the time we finally left a reception at some friends’ home, it was around 10 at night, so the clock was definitely ticking when I arrived home:  I had to…

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pretty fast slow food   Rana spinach and ricotta-filled ravioli from Eataly, tossed in an enameled iron pan in which two small slivered garlic cloves from John D. Madura Farm had been heated in olive oil until just fragrant, removed from the heat and a bit of fresh red Italian ‘roaster pepper’ from Oak Grove Plantation,…

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The  swordfish was on sale. I love swordfish. I love herbs. I always have a number of fresh ones on hand. I like trying out different treatments. I sometimes make the wrong call.  Now I know that fresh fennel seed just doesn’t have oregano’s ooomph. But it was still all good. a one pound swordfish steak, more than an…

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    This dish incorporates virtually every food group, except wine, and it’s potentially infinitely variable. Among those variations, to improve the chances for getting the eggs cooked just right, I’d suggest using ceramic dishes, or a single one, with a larger diameter than the six inches I had available.   inside each of two lightly-oiled…

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it’s called a ‘walleye’ (they also sell it whole, here Spanish mackerel below, bluefish above); on our kitchen counter, seasoned, ready to be floured; and on the plate.   It’s a wonderful fish. While growing up in Michigan and Wisconsin, I thought of the walleye, or ‘walleyed-pike’, or just ‘pickerel, as a very big thing, virtually the subject of fable, and…

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