There were no tomatoes this time, and there was a minimum number of little herb or spice condiments, but – wonderful to relate – it was still really enjoyable, in the assembling and in the eating.

The very special tender spring garlic mustard was the guest performer, but the great eggs, bacon, and one small head of chicory were stars as well.

• the entire cast: some very fresh eggs from pastured chickens and bacon from pastured pigs, both from Millport Dairy Farm, the eggs seasoned with Maldon salt, and not just pepper, but a mix of black pepper and other things that had gotten together accidentally when I was preparing a dry marinade for a meal a while back and then decided to hold onto for an occasion like this (black pepper, fennel seeds cumin seeds, coriander seeds, star anise, white peppercorns, and whole clove), finished with a pinch of dried fenugreek from Bombay Emerald Chutney Company (purchased at the Saturday Chelsea Farmers Market last fall); one small roughly chopped chicory rosette from Campo Rosso Farm sautéed in olive oil with 3 ramp bulbs (and served under their leaves), from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, finished with a drizzle of Columela Rioja 30 Year Reserva sherry vinegar; some wonderful garlic mustard from Alewife Farm; Sicilian Selezione olive oil from Trader Joe’s; Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’; lightly toasted slices of 2 terrific Lost Bread Co. loaves, ‘table bread’ and ‘Pane di Tavalo’ (a creation modeled on a famous bread from the town of Genzano, near Rome)
• our Sunday music was a recording of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s 1776 biblical oratorio, ‘Giobbe’, in a performance by the Rhenische Kantorei/Das Kliene Konzert conducted by Hermann Max

Dinner almost had to be a radish pasta.

I was surprised (embarrassed) to learn earlier in the evening that when I had recently bought some radishes, there were still some sitting inside the crisper. I think that was a first for me, but at least the they had arrived in 2 very different colors.

I incorporated the older, purple roots in last night’s dinner, but the leafy greens I used came from the new red ones, not because I wanted to be fussy, but because we’d already consumed the ones that had been attached to the others.

• two tablespoons of homemade breadcrumbs added to a cast iron skillet in which a tablespoon of olive oil had been heated over a medium flame, toasted, stirring frequently, until golden and crisp (only a minute or two), transferred to a small bowl and mixed with a little zest from an organic Chelsea Whole Foods Market lemon, then set aside while the pasta was prepared: eight ounces of a local pasta, Sfoglini trumpets, cooked al dente inside a large pot of boiling salted water and drained, with one cup of pasta cooking liquid reserved, added to a sauce which had begun with 6 ounces of purple radishes from Lani’s Farm, sliced into 1/4″ rounds, sautéed in a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat inside a large antique copper high-sided pan until they were tender and beginning to brown in spots (about 2 minutes), the radishes removed to a small bowl and another tablespoon of oil added to the pan, together with one sliced stem of spring garlic from Lani’s Farm, the allium stirred until fragrant, which was basically a matter of seconds, followed by the addition of the fresh greens from a different bunch of red radishes, these from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, that had been washed in several changes of water then roughly chopped, along with some of the reserved pasta cooking water, the leaves stirred until only beginning to wilt, the cooked pasta itself now added and mixed with the greens, stirring, more pasta water added as necessary until the liquid had emulsified, the reserved radishes themselves now returned and mixed in, followed by a half tablespoon or so of juice from an organic Whole Foods lemon and some sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a pinch of dried smoked serrano pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, the sauced pasta arranged in 2 shallow bowls, sprinkled with the bread crumb mixture prepared earlier and garnished with micro ruby streak mustard from Norwich Meadows Farm
• the wine was a brilliant Greek (Peloponnese) white, Tetramythos Muscat Sec 2015, from Copake Wine Works
• the music was the album, Georg Friedrich Händel: ‘To All Lovers Of Musick’, Op. 5 (trio sonatas), performed by Eduardo Lopez Banzo and the ensemble Al Ayre Español, conducted from the keyboard by the harpsichordist

Because it introduced almost nothing that was new into the food conversation on this blog, I wasn’t going to bother doing a post about this meal, but there was that ephemeral garlic mustard part, so I changed my mind.

• sixteen sea scallops (14 ounces) from Pura Vida Seafood, rinsed, dried very thoroughly, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, briefly grilled (90 seconds on each side) in a medium size enameled cast iron pan, finished with a squeeze of juice from a Chelsea Whole Foods Market organic lemon, a sprinkling of a very special treat, some chopped spring garlic mustard (alliaria petiolata/jack-by-the-hedge [Br.]), both blossoms and leaves from Tyler Dennis of Alewife Farm, and a drizzle of olive oil [they were still delicious, but because I was distracted near the end of their ideal cooking time, I left them on the grill a little too long, a mistake which curiously shrunk them in size]
• three Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Chelsea Whole Foods Market, halved, the cut sides sprinkled with salt and pepper placed in a little olive oil inside a small blue antique (1930s) Pyrex Flameware pan, and heated gently until just before they would have begun to lose shape, arranged on the plates and sprinkled with Sicilian fennel pollen from Buon Italia, a drizzle of good olive oil

• just under 20 ounces of 14 thick asparagus spears from John D. Madura Farms, trimmed, their stems peeled, rolled, along with half a dozen ramp bulbs and stems (the green leaves set aside), in a couple tablespoons of olive oil inside a large rectangular enameled cast iron pan, sautéed over medium high heat while frequently rolling or turning them until they were beginning to brown (about 15 minutes), finished with a sprinkling of Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper, then rolled once again with the reserved ramp leaves, now thinly sliced
• the wine was an excellent and inexpensive French (Gironde/Bergerac) white, Chateau Laulerie Bergerac Blanc 2018, from Flatiron Wines
• the music was the 1999 album of exquisitely austere guitar music, ‘Hans Werner Henze / Maximilian Mangold ‎– Royal Winter Music’,  Erste und zweite Sonaten Über Gestalten von Shakespeare, the pieces composed in 1976 and 1980 respectively

I had all this spring stuff, and I thought I shouldn’t really let it just lie around any longer, so I found a way to put it all together with some great pasta.

• six or 7 ounces of fiddlehead ferns from Tamarack Hollow Farm, washed vigorously in several changes of water until the brown chaff had been removed [this entertaining, slightly droll video, ‘How to quickly clean fiddleheads‘, could be pretty useful useful if you have a lot of fiddleheads – and more outdoor space than indoor running water], blanched for 2 or 3 minutes, drained, dried, added to a large antique high-sided copper pot in which 3 stems of thin spring ‘Magic’ garlic from Windfall Farms had been heated in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, the fiddleheads sautéed briefly before 6 ounces of sliced chestnut mushrooms from the Union Square Greenmarket stand of Gail’s Farm in Vineland, New Jersey were added and themselves sautéed until they were tender (3-5 minutes), a bit of both crushed dried habanada pepper and dried smoked serrano pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm added along with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, before 10 ounces of pasta from a one kilogram package of Afeltra 100% Pasta di Gragnano I.G.P. rigatone from Flatiron Eataly, cooked al dente and drained, were added and stirred in along with some reserved pasta water, over high heat, until the liquid had emulsifeid, arranged in shallow bowls and topped with some shaved Parmigiano Reggiano (aged 24 months) from Chelsea Whole Foods Market
• the wine was an Italian (Piedmont) red, Oddero, Barbera d’Alba Superiore, 2015, form Flatiron Wines
• the music was Handel’s more-or-less-1732 opera- ‘Acis and Galatea’, performed by The Sixteen

I’ve definitely never cooked a merlot steak, and now after engaging it one on one, I can’t remember whether I had even heard of it before last Saturday. We’d just left an art fair that afternoon, when I realized that while we would be guests at a dinner that evening, we hadn’t yet decided what we’d have for dinner on Sunday. We were near one of our favorite neighborhood butchers, so we walked a few blocks further downtown to our neighborhood whole-animal butcher shop.

Fro some time now my preferred steak has been the culotte, or what Brazilians call the picanha, but it’s not always easy to find, and while Hudson & Charles (located, naturally, on Hudson, near Charles, in the West Village) did have one, its particular size and shape wouldn’t really have worked for us that night, so I asked the butcher what he might recommend in its place.

He suggested a ‘merlot’ (video from the Meathook,  another local whole-animal shop), an under-appreciated tender beef steak from the side of the heel inside a larger muscle group called the campanella. I had spotted the word, ‘merlot’ on a label below a steak inside the glass-front cooler just before I asked the question. Its size was perfect, his description made it sound like a winner, and that’s what it turned out to be.

So, 2 days later I found myself in the kitchen with around one pound of an unfamiliar merlot steak, armed with nothing more than salt, pepper, a couple tablespoons of butter, a few ramp leaves, and some lemon zest.

It was terrific, as were the Greenmarket vegetables that joined it.

• before preparing the meat itself, the leaves of half a dozen ramps (maybe one or 2 tablespoons) from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, washed, dried, and chopped, half a teaspoon of zest from a Chelsea Whole Foods Market organic lemon, sea salt, and some freshly ground black pepper were mixed into 2 and a half tablespoons of softened butter, molded into squares or pats, then set in the refrigerator to chill, removed just as the steak was beginning to cook, meaning one 15-ounce ‘merlot’ steak from Hudson & Charles, halved, dried, rubbed generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, was set aside for about an hour, after which time it was placed inside a grill pan already quite hot above a fairly high flame, where the steaks remained, although turned at least once, for about a total of 6 minutes, or until they were medium rare (after they had mostly cooked, I loosely tented the 2 pieces with aluminum foil, and removed both foil and steaks when an instant read thermometer indicated they were medium rare), allowed to rest for 8 minutes or so, then quickly cut across the grain into 1/2″ sections, the reserved ramp butter spread on top

                                                

• five buttery pinto potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm and 5 sweet redskin potatoes from Race Farm (what remained that night from a larger stock of each), all halved, tossed with a little olive oil (barely a tablespoon), salt, black pepper, a pinch of hickory smoked Jamaican Scotch Bonnet pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, and another pinch of home dried habanada pepper, originally from Norwich Meadows Farm, spread across the surface of a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan and roasted at 400º for a little longer than 20 minutes

• broccoli rabe from Migliorelli Farm, washed and drained 3 times, braised inside a large, heavy antique copper pot in which two halved garlic cloves from Foragers Market had been allowed to sweat in some olive oil, the dish finished with salt, black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a Spanish (Castile and León/Gredos Mountains) red, Ruben Diaz, Gredos Garnacha ‘La Escalera’ 2016, from Flatiron Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Dutch Symphonies’, Anthony Halstead conducting the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, including 2 works by Carolus Antonius Fodor, and one by Johan Gabriel Meder