And it still tastes like musty caramels.

But then there’s much more to say about it, including the subtle variations which different sauces can bring to a good pasta like this Sfoglini red fife blend.

And this particular recipe is very useful for quickly assembling a good meal after coming home late, as we did last night (I think we may even have beaten the time it would have taken a good pizza to arrive).

• eight ounces of Sfoglini ‘organic red fife blend zucca’, purchased at the Greenmarket Regional Grains Project stall in Union Square Greenmarket, cooked al dente, mixed with a sauce made by starting out with 2 large cloves of ‘German Hardneck‘ garlic from Race Farm, sliced, and a little dried red pepper flakes, heating both in a large cast iron enameled pan for about one minute, adding some chopped collard greens from Tamarack Hollow Farm, stirring the mix for 5 minutes, or until tender, pouring in 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, and then the zest from most of one lemon, emulsified by stirring the pasta for a minute or 2 over low heat, along with some reserved pasta water, the pasta served in bowls with grated pecorino romano cheese from Buon Italia on top
• the wine was an Italian (Piedmont) white, The Piedmont Guy Ercole Monferratu DOC Bianco 2015
• the music was that of the fantastic creative and experimental new music champion, Hans Zender, from the album, ‘HANS ZENDER: Cabaret Voltaire’, which includes ‘Cabaret Voltaire’ and ‘Mnemosyne – Hölderlin lesen IV’, performed by Klangforum Wien, Salome Kammer, and Hans Zender; we listened to it on Spotify

The tomatoes were piling up again, but since I already had made a decision about which vegetables would accompany the salmon, I just added a simple salad/appetizer course.

• a handful or two of arugula from Alewife Farm, torn into fork-size pieces, topped with wedges of ripe red heirloom tomatoes from Lani’s Farm, drizzled with a good olive oil, good sea salt, freshly-ground pepper, and a bit of white balsamic vinegar, sprinkled with torn New York City basil from Gotham Greens via Whole Foods
• the wine was an Italian (Piedmont) white, Ioppa Vino Bianco San Grato 2015

 

When it came to the main course, there were micro things everywhere, perhaps partly just because they had been hanging around.

• one 15-ounce fresh (never frozen) wild sockeye salmon fillet from Whole Foods, coated on both sides with a mix of light brown turbinado sugar, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, freshly ground allspice, freshly ground nutmeg, and the zest of half of a lemon, marinated in the refrigerator in a covered dish for about 4 hours, after which time the fish was rinsed, patted dry, brought to room temperature, oiled generously, and cooked on an enameled grill pan, flesh side down, removed when the inside was medium pink, the outside crisp and smoky, divided onto 2 plates, sprinkled with micro scallions from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and served with lemon wedges [the recipe I used was fundamentally this one from Melissa Clark]
• flat green or Romano beans from Berried Treasures Farm, par-boiled, drained, dried (shaking over a flame in the pan in which they had cooked), reheated in a bit of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with purple micro radish from Windfall Farms
• two medium ‘new’ potatoes (which had eventually matured in the crisper, and which were probably Red Norland) from Central Valley Farm, boiled in well-salted water, drained, dried in the still-warm glass pot, quartered, rolled in a little olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with fennel flower from Rise & Root Farm
• the wine was a California (Solano) red, David Akiyoshi California Pinot Noir 2015

 

• the music throughout the meal was that of Charles Wuorinen, and notably, his trio for flute, bass clarinet, and piano, ‘Metagong’, heard on Spotify

This is what our eggs looked like this morning while they were still in the iron pan. I’m not happy with the picture I took of them once they were on a plate, so I’ll have to describe what’s missing in the image above and added later.

• aside from the 6 eggs from Millport Dairy Farm, sliced red scallion stems from Norwich Meadows Farm, 10 small ripe cherry tomatoes from Stokes Farm, Maldon salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, there were also slices of toast from a loaf of Eataly’s ‘Rustico Classico’, thick slices of fried bacon from Millport Dairy Farm,   dried crushed organioc wild fennel flowers from Buon Italia, and fresh cut fennel blossoms from Rise & Root Farm, a small mound of chopped papalo from Lani’s Farm, and a wonderful aromatic Middle-Eastern-style seasoning blend, ‘L’eKama‘ from NY Shuk
• the music was a biblical ‘passion’ which has rarely been executed by composers, that of Saint Mark, and specifically Reinhard Keiser’s ‘Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet‘, which we heard on Spotify

A head of lettuce may be a head of lettuce – but sometimes it’s a rose – here, specifically, either Boston, Butter, or Bibb lettuce (I forgot to ask Tyler), seen yesterday at the Alewife Farm Union Square Greenmarket stand.

Heirlooms, specifically, the many varieties of heirloom tomatoes seen at the Union Square Greenmarket stand of Lani’s Farm September 26.