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The preparation of the skate is familiar to both of us, but it was one of the best ever, the fish cooked just right, the polenta coating perfectly crispy, and the bronze fennel innovation gave a favorite a subtle twist. Note that the biggest challenge in preparing this dish is the delicacy of the skate: It’s always…

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I had some eggs which I did not want to forget to use, so I decided I’d make a frittata for dinner.  We love frittatas. We are also big fans of most any vegetable, not least romanesca broccoli, as I’ve shown recently.   The next day in the Greenmarket I spotted a beautiful head of this art…

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  While these are baby squid, perhaps they are not baby squid (which might be only 3 to 6 centimeters long, including their heads).  They are however small, tender, and very tasty. I serve this dish often; the size of the cephalopods varies according to local market availability, but they are always delicious, and always very easy to prepare. The recipe is included in…

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I included parsley this time. While it was just as delicious as when I served the dish without it, my sentiment is that I probably prefer the more minimal version of aglio olio e peperoncino, especially if the pasta is of really exceptional quality. This is Mark Bittman’s recipe, which is pretty much what I did myself, using one…

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(in something of a statement about my at-least-intermittent compulsiveness, the various heirloom cherry tomatoes are already divided into two quite equal shares before the rest of the course has been finished; but they were pretty)   But it really wasn’t about the tomatoes, and in fact they were barely even an afterthought.  It was about the…

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I had not realized, before I put it on the table, just how appropriate this dish would be for a day on which we had revisited the Donald Judd house. To begin with, it’s probably the second most minimal recipe in my kitchen ‘kit’ (the first has got to be this spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino). but beyond that,…

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Day boat Long Island Cod. But there’s also this sad story about cod. a single cod fillet (just under one pound) from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, halved, sautéed slowly for about four or five minutes (along with a one and a half tablespoons of minced garlic, from Norwich Meadows Farm, which had been begun to color in the oil), then flipped, and…

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I don’t really know what was inside the pasta other than shrimp, since Buon Italia didn’t include a list of the ingredients on the package, only on the shelf, and I didn’t realize that until I arrived home.  I’m going to try to remember to look the next time I’m there. prezzamolata di gamberi from Buon…

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We hadn’t eaten meat in 9 days, although that was certainly no hardship for us.  After enjoying a small duck breast, from Long Island or Pennsylvania, on October 22, we had feasted, in succession on Long Island eel; ‘Hudson River prawns’; zucchini-filled pasta made 2 blocks away; penne with local Romanesco; and New York-local-waters-sourced mackerel, crab cakes, scallops and Grey…

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Nice picture. This was also just about a perfect meal, for the cook and the diner, but to be totally honest, I have to quickly add that it gets that salute only by the standards and means of a modest kitchen and a quite-ordinary competence. Also, it was the child of necessity, or more exactly, the happy outcome of a glitch…

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