Last night’s dinner represented a return to Italy, or at least one interpretation of Italy. While there were no fish stalls in the Greenmarket on Monday, again because of the weekend’s bitter cold, but I did manage to put fish on the table.

Three years ago I wrote this about this terrific dish, and except for the fact that I actually haven’t served it since, for reasons I can’t explain even to myself, I stand by every word:

This simple meal became a standard in our kitchen from the day I first tried it.  It follows a classic and delicious Mark Bittman recipe which can be put together entirely with ingredients normally always on hand, meaning it’s perfect for those times when the cook has not had a chance to get to a market of any kind.  Bittman describes the parsley ‘garnish’ as optional, and so the dish maintains my boast, but I can’t imagine not including what is the most common herb in the kitchen, if at all possible.

• one medium roughly-chopped sweet yellow onion from Norwich Meadows Farm, stirred in a couple tablespoons of olive oil over a medium-high flame inside a large enameled cast iron pot until softened, followed there by a teaspoon of crushed dried Sicilian pepperoncino from Buon Italia, a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper, 2 tablespoons of salted Sicilian capers, rinsed, and the contents of one 14-ounce can of Simpson Brands domestic (San Marzano-type) plum tomatoes, the tomatoes themselves first roughly chopped, the mixture cooked, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes began to break up, the heat then lowered and the pot kept on the flame for 5 or 10 minutes more, then just before the pasta itself (8 ounces of Setaro spaghetti from Buon Italia), boiled barely al dente was added, 6 ounces of Portuguese Ás do Mar belly meat tuna in olive oil, already slightly flaked, slid into the sauce and mixed in, some reserved pasta water added and stirred in to ensure the pasta was not really dry, arranged in 2 shallow bowls, garnished with chopped parsley from Westside Market
• the wine was an Italian (Calabria) red, Scala, Ciro Rosso Superiore, 2013, from Flatiron Wines
• the music was Mozart’s 1772 ‘one-act dramatic serenade’, ‘Il sogno di scipione’, Ian Page condicting with the Classical Opera Company

I had only cooked goat ribs once before. It was early August, and I wanted to avoid turning on the oven, so I managed to devise a scheme that would allow be to cook them on top of the stove. They were delicious, and it was a very simple process, so I repeated it last night.

The ribs looked great on the plate, the aroma was wonderful, and they were very tasty, but we were both disappointed that they were quite chewy (the meat definitely did not ‘fall off the bone’). I might have had more success had I kept them on the grill pan even longer than I did, but I don’t know for certain. Even allowing for the fact that goat is nowhere near as fatty as pork, or even veal or beef, I think I could do better next time if I approached the cooking differently.

• one side of goat/cabrito riblets from Tony of Consider Bardwell Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket, cut along the bone with a kitchen shears into 4 pieces, dried on paper towels and pan-grilled inside an enameled cast iron ribbed pan for a total of at least 20 minutes, basting all along with 2 long branches of rosemary, tied together and repeatedly dipped into a mixture of oil, red Rioja wine vinegar, crushed dried dark habanada pepper (from fresh ones purchased in the fall of 2016 from Norwich Meadows Farm), sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, replacing a very loose cover of tin foil between each sweep of the herb with its basting mixture, arranged on 2 plates, garnished with micro red amaranth from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• ten or 11 ounces of not-large white beets from Norwich Meadows Farm, trimmed, scrubbed, and cut into approximately 1-inch wedges, tossed in a bowl with 2 teaspoons of olive oil, more than 1 tablespoon of a mix of chopped herbs (fresh thyme and winter savory from Stokes Farm, sage from Keith’s Farm), more than half of a teaspoon of freshly-grated zest from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon, sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper, arranged one flat side down on a cured unglazed medium Pampered Chef oven pan, placed in the  lower third of an oven preheated to 450°F, roasted, turning once or twice, until tender and slightly browned, or 20 to 25 minutes, arranged on the plates and garnished with chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the small amount of winter kale that remained from a large bunch from Hoeffner Farms we had enjoyed the night before, washed, drained, wilted inside a medium tin-lined antique copper pot in less than a tablespoon or so of olive oil in which 2 bruised and one halved clove of Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm had first been allowed to sweat and begin to color, the greens seasoned with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and arranged on the plates, a little more olive oil drizzled on top
• the wine was a California (Lodi, I believe) red, F. Stephen Millier Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon California 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was Wagner’s magnificent late (1887-1882) Bühnenweihfestspiel, ‘Parsifal’, a beautifully-engineered 1962 recording of a great performance, Hans Knappertsbusch conducting the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and the Bayreuth Festival Chorus, with soloists Jess Thomas, Gustav Neidlinger, Niels Moller, Georg Paskuda, Gerhard Stolze, Dorothea Siebert, Irene Dalis, Martti Talvela, Gerd Nienstedt, Ursula Boese, Anja Silja, Gundula Janowitz, George London, Hans Hotter, and Sona Cervena

(sunlight reflected from the north on its rare stretch across an ancient table)

 

The Amish generally have a reputation for their traditional ways, and their reluctance to adopt modern conveniences, although this hasn’t always meant always abjuring actual modern technologies, and there are major variations in the practice of  their many communities.  Still, it’s interesting to find the Amish farm most familiar to this New Yorker, and perhaps most New Yorkers, introducing us to relatively innovative food products.

I’m no longer surprised to see John Stoltzfoos selling things like peppery cheeses and spicy sausages (all excellent, by the way), but I was recently surprised to  find him in his family’s Millport Dairy Farm stall at the Union Square Greenmarket, selling blue eggs that had been laid by the trendy Americauna chicken, which was first bred in the US in the 1970s.

I’ve been buying those eggs ever since. The color is only incidental for me: It’s the taste and those plump, deep-yellow yolks that are the attraction for both Barry and I now.

This morning afternoon they dominated a particularly beautiful breakfast table, a rather traditional American board whose ingredients were, except for the salt and pepper, and, probably, the butter, entirely of local origin.

• the makings of this meal included thick bacon from Millport Dairy Farm, Cultured Pastured Butter from Organic Valley, Japanese scallion greens from Norwich Meadows Farm (remarkable survivors, with some attention, in the crisper!), Ameraucana chicken eggs from Millport Dairy Farm, black pepper, sea salt, Maldon sea salt for finishing, crushed dried golden/orange habanada bought fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm, Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ (from Maine, near Skowhegan, and they are so pretty local, pretty green) via Whole Foods Market, winter savory (now half-dried from branches that were originally fresh) from Stokes Farm, fresh lovage from two Guys from Woodbridge, toasts of a day-old whole wheat baguette from Runner & Stone Bakery, and fresh slices of a Sullivan Street Stirato
• the music was an extraordinary performance of Beethoven’s 1823 ‘Missa Solemnis’ John Eliot Gardiner conducting l’Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, the Monteverdi Choir, and the solists Alastair Miles, Charlotte Margiono, Catherine Robbin, and William Kendall

I’m nursing myself back to health by continuing to cook every day, and last night I started to get back to serious start-from-scratch cooking with a really simple meal. Actually, the desire for simplicity was driven at least as much by a consideration of the short time I had for preparation, since we wouldn’t return from the theater (the Civilians’ ‘The Undertaking’) until after 9:30.

We were sitting down to this meal less than an hour later, even though I had taken my time putting it together, and we enjoyed a drink first, while talking about Steve Cossen‘s terrific play.

• one 11-ounce yellowfin tuna steak off of Scott Rucky’s fishing vessel, ‘Dakota’, from American Seafood Company, cut into 2 pieces, rubbed, tops and bottoms, with a mixture of a dry Sicilian fennel seed from Buon Italia that had been crushed in a mortar and pestle along with a little dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, then sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan-grilled above a brisk flame (for barely a minute on each side), finished on the plates with a good squeeze of the juice of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market and some olive oil, served with micro kohlrabi from Two Guys from Woodbridge

There were green vegetables at the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturday – and this was near the end of January! I had already picked up both Savoy and red cabbage earlier in the week, but now I took home some Brussels sprouts, on the stalk, and a large bunch of kale.  I could probably make it through an entire week with these stocks, and then I could start dreaming of the earliest wild spring green stuff.

Because it would be slightly less time-consuming than roasting the sprouts, and probably a better match with the tuna, I decided it was to be the kale that would go into this meal.

• winter kale from Hoeffner Farms, washed, drained, wilted inside a large enameled cast iron pot in a tablespoon or so of olive oil in which 2 bruised and halved cloves of Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm had first been allowed to sweat and begin to color, the greens seasoned with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and arranged on the plates and a little more olive oil drizzled on top
• pieces of a whole wheat baguette from Runner & Stone Bakery
• the wine was a California (North Coast, Lodi and Clarksburg) rosé, Evangelos Bagias California Rose 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was Handel’s gorgeous 1709 (Venice) opera, ‘Agrippina’, John Eliot Gardiner conducting the English Baroque Soloists, with Donna Brown, Anne Sofie von Otter, Julian Clarkson, Michael Chance, Derek Lee Ragin, Della Jones, Alastair Miles, George Mosley, and Jonathan Peter Kenny

On Friday I was down with a bad cold, or something like that, so I wasn’t up to a trip to the Greenmarket, and I also didn’t trust my ability to put together a meal from scratch, so I reached into the freezer where I can usually find a good filled pasta that would do very well in such a pinch, then looked around for some sympathetic additions I might assemble with it.

It was a pretty ordinary meal, and similar to many I’ve already included on this blog; I wouldn’t normally have bothered to enter it here, except that I saw it looks pretty interesting in the picture.

• between one and two tablespoons of olive oil heated slowly inside a large high-sided tin-lined heavy copper pan with a crushed piece of orange/gold habanada pepper, joined by 8 or so pitted Gaeta olives olives from Buon Italia and a handful of pine nuts, also from Buon Italia, slowly heated and browned earlier inside a small well-seasoned cast iron pan, sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper then added just before a 10-ounce package of frozen Rana portobello-mushroom-and-ricotta-filled ravioli rounds from Eataly that had just been boiled inside a large pot of well-salted water for 2 minutes and drained was slipped into the copper pan and mixed well with the sauce, everything now stirred together over a low flame, along with some of the reserved pasta water (in order to emulsify the liquid), the mix arranged inside 2 shallow bowls, some olive oil drizzled on top and around the edges, finished with freshly-grated cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano Hombre from Whole Foods Market) and a scattering of micro kohlrabi from Two Guys from Woodbridge

There was a cheese course.

• a maturing Ardith Mae Chevre
• a couple pinches of crushed dried wild Italian myrtle [Mirto/Myrtus], berries and leaves, from Buon Italia (in Italy, sometimes used as an alternative to juniper berries, in pork dishes especially – including wild boar, or, in Sardinia and Corsica, in making a liqueur)
• a bit of micro red amaranth from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• thin toasts of a She Wolf Bakery polenta boule

 

• the wine throughout the meal was an Italian (Tuscany) red, Lanciola Chianti Colli Fiorentini 2013, from Philippe Liquors
• the music was from the album, ‘Haydn: Complete Symphonies‘, including No. 104 (1762), and several that are un-numbered, all performed by Adám Fischer and the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra