The shock absorbers in the cook’s left knee seem to have torn, reducing his mobility. For a while the ingredients in these meals will be sourced less from local producers, and more from local retailers. This means that instead of buying from local farmers in the Union Square Greenmarket, he will be visiting the shops that are nearest to his kitchen. He’ll also be able to lean on the most over-qualified kitchen helper, ever.

So this meal was transitional.

• three cloves of roughly-sliced Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm heated with a tablespoon or more of olive oil inside a large tin-lined high-sided pot until softened, then 2 shallots and a bit of crushed dried golden/orange habanada pepper added, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, 8 or 10 pitted oil-cured olives from Buon Italia stirred in, and 16 ounces of gently-cooked eggplant-filled ravioli from Citarella (no cheese inside) added, followed by some reserved pasta cooking water, in small amounts, stirred with the mix until the liquid had emulsified, the sauced ravioli served in shallow bowls, sprinkled with a Parmigiano Reggiano Hombre from Whole Foods Market, garnished with pea sprouts from Windfall Farms, finished with a final drizzle of olive oil around the edges
• the wine was an Italian (Tuscany) red, Farnetella, Chianti Colli Senesi 2015, from Flatiron Wines
• the music was Bruckner’s Symphony No. 0 (Linz Version, 1865-66), Georg Solti conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Is it still ‘Kassler‘ even when it’s not entirely German? I’ve made a working-executive decision: It is.

The only thing I worry about when I prepare a meal with smoke pork chops without heating them inside some Sauerkraut is whether they will be juicy. I’ve come up with the solution: keep them covered, and even the tiniest bit of liquid will do the trick.

They were definitely juicy last night.

And so were the vegetables.

• a small amount of frozen rendered goose fat, the gift of a friend, that I had mixed with some juices from a dinner of which included squab bruschetta in which I had used it, heated inside a heavy, medium-size tin-lined copper skillet, where it had softened the chopped white sections of a scallion from Phillips Farms, the green section reserved for later, after which 2 smoked loin pork chops from Schaller & Weber were added, the pot covered with a universal copper lid, kept above a very low flame (just enough to warm the chops through, as they were already fully-cooked), turning the meat once, then, near the end of the cooking time (I went 8 minutes this time), the green parts of the onion, which had been set aside earlier, now also sliced, added for a minute or so, the pork removed, arranged on the plates, brushed with a little garlic oregano jam from Berkshire Berries, and sprinkled with both the white and green onion pieces
• red mustard from Norwich Meadows Farm, wilted in olive oil in which 3 cloves of Keith’s Farm Rocambole garlic had been gently sautéed until they had begun to brown, finished with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• six ‘Pinto’ potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, boiled, unpeeled, in generously-salted water until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried in the still-warm vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed there with 3 tablespoons of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ [12 grams of fat per 14 grams, or each tablespoon, of butter], seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, arranged on the plates, sprinkled with chopped parsley from Eataly, some toasted homemade breadcrumbs scattered on the top
• the wine was an excellent German (Pfalz) white, Becker Family Pinot Blanc, 2013, which our local purveyor at the time, Appellation Wines, was kind enough to special order for us when we asked them
• the music was Handel’s 1737 opera, ‘Berenice’, with Alan Curtis conducting Il Complesso Barocco

Together we opted for the simplest of the recipes I’ve used in preparing sea bass, because the cook was tired, but also because this time the muse wanted something more like comfort food than delicate display. Ironically, the finished meal described in the picture above looks pretty basic, if not minimal (even to the absence of any of my usual micro green garnishes this time).

• two 7-ounce black sea bass fillets from American Seafood, rinsed, dried, and placed skin side down inside a tin-lined copper au gratin pan in which a teaspoon or so of olive oil had been poured and brushed around the surface, the fish seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with a mix of parsley from Eataly; lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge; sage and thyme, both partially-dried, from Phillips Farm; mint from Windfall Farms; and a bit of a home-dried heatless, orange/ gold Habanada pepper (from fruit grown by fresh Norwich Meadows Farm last fall), the fish topped with a coating of homemade bread crumbs, and drizzled with 2 teaspoons of olive oil, placed inside a 425º oven for 9 or 10 minutes, arranged on 2 plates, finished with a squeeze of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market and a light drizzle of olive oil
• three Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market, halved, arranged around the bass inside the pan in the last 3 or 4 minutes of their cooking, placed on the plates next to the fish, finished with chopped parsley

• one small bunch of cavalo nero from Norwich Meadows Farm, wilted briefly inside a large vintage tin-lined copper pot in a tablespoon or so of olive oil in which 2 cloves of Keith’s Farm Rocambole garlic had first been heated, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, drizzled with a little more oil
• the wine was an Italian (Umbria) white, Trebbiano Spoletino ‘Farandola’ Di Filippo 2016, from Astor Wines
• the music was Francesco Cavalli’s, opera, ‘Gli Amori D’Apollo E Di Dafne’ (The Loves of Apollo and Daphne), which premiered in Venice during the Carnival season of 1640, performed by the Ensemble Elyma

The meal was Italian, with some tweaks.

The antipasto was domestic, and much of it local.

• three ounces of La Quercia Ridgetop Prosciutto, from Whole Foods Market, served with baby mizuna from Norwich Meadows Farm, the prosciutto and greens drizzled with a very good Sicilian olive oil, Agricento, Azienda Agricola Mandranova (exclusively Nocellara olives), the greens also dressed with organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper
• slices from a loaf of ‘rustic classic’ from Eataly

The pasta course was almost entirely local, the obvious exceptions being the olives and the olive oil, the salt and the pepper, but it was pretty Italian, at least before I tossed in the micro greens.

• one 10-ounce package of frozen Rana portobello-mushroom-and-ricotta-filled ravioli rounds from Eataly, boiled inside a large pot of well-salted water for 2 minutes and drained, slipped into a large vintage tin-lined copper pan in which sliced baby Rocambole garlic from Keith’s farm, a sliced section of scallion from Phillips Farms, one small sliced red shallot from Norwich Meadows Farm, some crushed dried orange/gold habanada, and a mix of both Gaeta and dry-cured olives, all pitted, from Buon Italia, had been briefly sautéed in olive oil, then a bit of reserved pasta water added and the liquids emulsified, the mix placed in shallow bowls, with roughly-grated Parmesan cheese dusted on top, garnished with micro scallions
• the wine throughout the meal was an Italian (Piedmont) red, Alessandro Rivetto Barbera d’Alba 2014, from Astor Wines
• the music was an album of music by Lorenzo Palomo, his ‘Sinfonía Córdoba’ and ‘Fulgores’ 

Our favorite chops.

The tomatoes and the collards are pretty fine too.

• two 9-ounce bone-in loin pork chops from Flying Pigs Farm, thoroughly dried, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper and seared quickly in a heavy enameled cast-iron pan before half of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market was squeezed over the top (the lemon then left in the pan between them, cut side down), the chops placed in a 425º oven for about 7 minutes, then flipped, part of a golden dried habanada pepper, crushed, added, the lemon squeezed over them once again and replaced inside the pan for another 3 or 4 minutes, when 4 Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market were added and the pan returned to the oven for about 4 more minutes, when the chops were removed and arranged on 2 warm plates while the tomatoes were turned onto their round sides and the the pan heated on the top of the stove over a medium-high flame until the pork and tomato juices had reduced to almost a syrup and spooned over the chops, which were sprinkled with chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, the tomatoes garnished with micro scallions, also from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• collard greens from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed 3 times, drained, some of the water retained and held aside, to be added as the greens cooked if necessary, the leaves and tender stems cut roughly, braised until gently wilted inside a medium heavy vintage, high-sided, tin-lined copper pot in which 2 halved Rocambole garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm had been allowed to sweat over a low flame with some olive oil, finished with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a small drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was an Italian (Langhe) white, Cagliero Rabel Langhe Bianco 2013 from Astor Wines
• the music was an album of music composed by Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605) that included ‘Amfiparnaso’ (1597), a madrigal-comedy cycle, and ‘The Musical Banquet’ (1597), which is just as the title suggests