The antipasto included the lamb that remained from an earlier meal, now at room temperature, more mellow and sweet than when it had just been cooked and still warm (for what it is worth, the little roast was too small to allow me to make neat thin slices, so it looks rather chopped up here).

• lamb, from a roast prepared the previous Sunday, here served at room temperature, sliced as thinly as I could manage, leaning on a simple salad of romaine lettuce from Shushan Hydroponic and small arugula leaves from Alewife Farm, the greens dressed with a good Umbrian olive oil, Luciana Cerbini Casa Gola from Buon Italia (which was also drizzled over the lamb), a white balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper, accompanied by slices of pane di comune from Sullivan Street Bakery

 

The primi was not followed by a secundi, but on its own it was certainly up to the challenge presented by the salad which preceded it.  It was a pretty sturdy chestnut pasta which was sauced with mushrooms and, in an homage to the lamb in the salad, a bit of the intense gravy that had been produced by its preparation earlier in the week.

• eight ounces of Sfoglini chestnut fusilli (organic semolina flour, chestnut flour, water) cooked until al dente, served with a mushroom sauce composed of chopped golden oyster mushrooms from Blue Oyster Cultivation, cooked until soft in a large tin-lined heavy copper pan with a little bit of rich ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘, minced ’Picasso’ (very strong) shallots from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm and minced garlic from John D. Madura Farm and some chopped thyme from Stokes Farm added to the mushrooms and cooked until fragrant and soft, at which time another tablespoon or two of butter was added, and, once melted, a tablespoon of coarse stone-ground flour introduced and stirred to make something of a paste, before a third of a cup of white wine slowly poured into the pan while being slowly stirred with a rubber whisk, cooked until the mix thickens, chopped parsley from Eataly and chopped lovage from Windfall Farms stirred in, before adding a little more than a tablespoon of concentrated genuinely-spicy self-sauce (gravy) rendered from a lamb roast cooked days before, the whole mix seasoned with salt and pepper before the cooked pasta was turned into the pan and mixed with the sauce, the completed dish served in 2 bowls, with grated ‘Parmigiano Reggiano Bonat 3’ from Buon Italia sprinkled over the top, before adding some micro fennel greens from Alewife Farm

(fennel micro greens, the final touch)

 

• the wine for both courses was an Oregon (Willamette Valley) red, Spindrift Cellars Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2013
• the music was Agostino Steffani’s ‘Niobe Regina Di Tebe’, in a performance by the Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock

This dish has appeared here a number of times already.  Although we both like it very much as it is, this time I tried to introduce a new element. It didn’t really work.

• seven 2 to 3-ounce mackerel fillets from Pura Vida Seafood, washed, dried, brushed with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, pan grilled over high heat for 6 or 7 minutes, turning once, removed and completed with a salsa consisting of halved Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods tossed with olive oil, wild brined capers which had been rinsed and drained, juice from a strange large, heavily-seeded lemon grown by Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, salt, and pepper, sprinkled with ‘micro fennel’ (sprouts) from Alewife Farm. [in fact, I think the subtlety of the cut fennel sprouts was somewhat lost in the intensity of this strong-flavored fish]
• about a quarter of a pound of turnip greens from Alewife Farm, wilted in olive oil along with two garlic cloves from Whole Foods which had been lightly-browned in the oil just before
• the wine was a Spanish (Rioja) white, Monopole Cune white Rioja wine 2014
• the music was chamber works by Aulis Sallinen, on this album, those which had not been heard the night before, again performed by the Sinfonia Finlandia, and the Jyväskylä Sinfonia Wind Quintet

I already had all the extras, but I needed the lead; I found it on Wednesday where John Stoltzfoos oversees his family’s farm stand in the Union Square Greenmarket: It was a 13-ounce grass-fed beef steak, and it was everything I had expected.

• one New York strip steak (13 ounces), entirely grass fed, from Millport Dairy in the Union Square Greenmarket,  brought to room temperature, dried with paper towels, scattered with a little sea salt, pan-grilled for about 4 minutes on each side, a little more salt and freshly-ground telicherry pepper added to both sides after each had been seared/cooked, removed to 2 warm plates, drizzled with a little juice from a tiny local lemon-lime from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, sprinkled with chopped rosemary from Stokes Farm, and a little olive oil
• upland cress from Stokes Farm, washed, trimmed of its roots, arranged on the two plates just before the steaks were placed at or on the edge of the greens, dressed with good olive oil, salt, and papper
• eight sweet Red Norland potatoes from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, scrubbed, boiled, unpeeled, until tender, drained and returned to the warm pan, then halved, tossed  with rich ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘, salt, pepper, chopped wild garlic from Lani’s Farm, chopped parsley from Eataly, and, at the very end, a handful of sorrel from Windfall Farms
• the wine was a Spanish (Rioja) red, Viña Real, Crianza Rioja 2011
• the music was Aulis Sallinen’s Chamber Music Nos. 1-3, with the Sinfonia Finlandia, and the Jyväskylä Sinfonia Wind Quintet