A simple expedient if the larder is nearly empty or if there is little time for assembling a meal from scratch (and especially if confronted with both situations), a package of store-bought filled pasta lying in the freezer is a boon, and it doesn’t have to be routine.  In this case I was lucky to have saved a bit of the juices from yesterday’s braised fennel and tomato.  I also had a ripe and singularly-beautiful green heirloom tomato, some Thai peppers in four colors, and good basil.  Spinach and ricotta-filled ravioli has rarely had it so good.

• Rana spinach and ricotta-filled ravioli from Eataly, sauced with just the right amount of chopped hot yellow Thai pepper heated in some olive oil and joined by the juices remaining from a vegetable braise which had been a part of the previous evening’s meal (the ingredients were fennel, yellow and red heirloom tomatoes, garlic, chiles, lemon juice, and chopped fennel fronds), a sliced green heirloom tomato from Berried Treasures, then all of it finished with torn basil from Gotham Greens at Whole Foods
• the wine was an Italian white, Santa Cristina Umbria 2013

This entrée was a triumph of fresh local, natural food sources.  Absolutely everything which was not actually fresh (like oil, salt, pepper, vinegar, flour) – other than the lemon juice and the wine – was brought home from the Union Square Greenmarket in the last few days.

• flounder fillets from PE & DD, washed, dried, brushed with a bit of good white wine vinegar and salt, floured, browned in olive oil, then removed to the plates, the pan wiped with paper towels, then butter, lemon juice and parsley from Paffenrath Farms added quickly and briefly heated, the resulting sauce poured over the fillets,  which were finished with chopped lovage from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm
• bulb fennel from Norwich Meadows Farm, slowly braised with sliced garlic from from Berried treasures, roughly-chopped heirloom tomatoes (also from Berried Treasures), crushed hot chiles (dried Santaka Peppers from Keith’s Farm), then finished with lemon juice, and chopped fennel fronds
• radish greens from John D. Madura Farms, wilted in oil seasoned by heating a small garlic clove from Lani’s Farm which had been sliced in two
• the wine was a French Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, Château des Eyssards Bergerac 2012

• loin lamb chops from Ottomanelli’s, spice-and-herb-rubbed (cumin, dried thyme, coriander, pimento picante, black pepper), sautéed, finished with oil and chopped parsley
• yellow heirloom plum tomatoes from Berried Treasures, sliced in half, seasoned, then pan-grilled, finished with oil and balsamic vinegar
• yellow summer squash from Berried Treasures, sliced into disks, and slivered tiny red bell peppers, both caramelized, finished with toasted pine nuts and lovage from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm
• a Spanish red, Salbide Rioja 2012 

 

Most of the prep for this meal is involved in cleaning the mussels, but it’s worth every minute.  It’s a terrific, sophisticated combination of flavors.  I may be a sucker for anything lovage, but I may not be the only one tempted to forget every other formula for steaming mussels.  The simple recipe created by Jerry Traunfeld, was described by Sarah Dickerman in the New York Times in 2006.

• two pounds of scrubbed mussels purchased from Pura Vida in the Union Square Greenmarket, combined in a large heavy enameled pot with two cups of a variety of halved heirloom cherry tomatoes from Berried Treasures, half a cup of good white wine, a few tablespoons of chopped shallot from Eataly, three tablespoons of butter, a good amount of freshly-ground black pepper, and some coarsely-chopped lovage, also from Berried Treasures, everything steamed over high heat for a few minutes, then served with thick slices of Trucio from Sullivan Street Bakery (a superb rustic sourdough country bread with a dark crust)
• the wine was a Loire, a perfect compliment to the mussels, Domaine de La Fruitière Vignes Blanches 2012

Perfection.

Everything was really, really good.  I think it was largely because of the fresh, local and unadulterated ingredients.  Also, as with the sea bass fillet in the last post, this entrée could be described as a “a good date dinner”, if for a slightly different reason.  Here it was because the simple steps in its preparation demand very little attention.

I’ve prepared this dish twice, and Barry and I both want to savor it more often.   Aside from serving as a platform and seasoning for the monkfish, I can imagine the braised couscous and vegetables working with other fish or crustaceans (maybe lobster tails?), or as a side to fish or meat quickly (or slowly, lazily) prepared separately.

Couscous is Italian? Yes, and very traditional in Sicily, where, like so much else we love about its food, it began with the Saracens.

• a monkfish tail from Pura Vida, cooked in what I can only describe as a couscous casserole, a recipe from David Pasternak;  its ingredients included olive oil, sliced garlic from Berried Treasures, some superb Mutti baby Roma tomatoes from Eataly, cracked Sicilian-like olives from Whole Foods, and one crushed dried chile
• yellow flat beans, otherwise known as pole beans, or Romano beans, from Berried Treasures, which were parboiled and then finished with chopped lovage from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm
• a Sardinian white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2013

Note: After I tripped the shutter (do digital cameras actually have a ‘shutter’?) for the image above, I scattered some more chopped lovage onto the beans, so imagine there’s more green in that area of the picture.

 

I love this fish, for both its flavor and its beauty.  When Barry messaged me a phone pic yesterday of the menu board at Blue Moon Fish which included ‘Sea Bass fillets’, I raced to the Greenmarket, hoping to get some of these guys before they were sold out (as they usually are if I set off at my usual time); I even postponed breakfast.

It was worth every bit of my exertions.  In this case the entrée as a whole was also a winner for its textures and contrasting temperatures – and for ease of preparation.

The basic recipe for this treatment I uncovered on line only minutes before beginning to put it together.  I was looking for something a bit elegant and minimal, and I wanted to avoid turning on the oven.  I also wanted something Italian-ish, to accompany some beautiful young rapini (broccoli rabe) I had picked up at the Greenmarket at the same time.

The clincher was that I had almost all of the ingredients for the recipe already on hand (I had been looking for a way to use some of the cherry tomatoes – in three colors or varieties – that I had sitting on the windowsill for a few days).  I was also interested in the fact that the fish and the salsa could both be more or less assembled ahead of time, like the rapini, and put together in five minutes before it was placed on the table.  Sophie Grigson, who contributed it to Food & Wine, called it  a “good date dinner”.

• small (2 ounces each) sea bass fillets from Blue Moon Fish, marinated in olive oil and lemon for 20 minutes, removed, wiped dry, then very briefly sautéed over high heat on both sides, the skin side down first; accompanied by a salsa, prepared 45 minutes in advance, of halved cherry tomatoes from Berried Treasures, chopped kalamata olives, dill from Lani’s Farm, basil from Gotham Greens at Whole Foods, and in this case, some dried chiles, salt and pepper and olive oil
• young and tender rapini from Hawthorne Valley Farm, cut a bit, then basically just wilted in a bit of olive oil which had already brought out the scent of a large split clove of garlic from Berried Treasures
• the wine was not Italian, but rather a super Spanish white, Vevi Rueda 2012, from Flatiron Wines.

As with many of the other meals described on this blog, this one didn’t begin and end with the course described and pictured.  For several days I had watched with both anticipation and concern as two beautiful heirloom tomatoes, one red, the other green, ripened on the breakfast room windowsill. With a Caprese salad in mind, I had picked up some fresh mozzarella Monday afternoon at Eataly on my way back from the Greenmarket.  It would become part of an antipasto before a bowl of pasta which I imagined would somehow involve some small summer squash I had gotten at the Greenmarket that same day.  I dressed the tomato and mozzarella with olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes, and torn basil, and served it with slices of sturdy ‘Rustico Classico’, also from Eataly.

The pasta fixings were almost entirely improvised, with a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, the idea being to enhance and not disguise the squash.  Later, while we were finishing the meal I realized that while the courses bracketing it included dairy products, the pasta dish itself was genuinely vegan. .  It was not a conscious plan, but it happens here sometimes.

The linguine course was followed by a generous compote of peaches (hey, peaches are Italian too!) which I had also been watching as they ripened (contrary to my expectations and intentions, all at the same time), mixed with drops of Orgeat sirup, and topped with a dollop of good vanilla gelato.

• Afeltra linguine with a sauce of slightly-caramelized zucchini and yellow summer squash from Berried Treasures and half a dozen different fresh herbs from various farmers in the Greenmarket, lemon zest, and lemon juice, tossed with some toasted pine nuts
• a delightful northern Italian white, a spritzy Piedmont from Cantina Elvio Tintero, Vino Bianca Secco Grangia, Kermit Lynch (50% Favorita, 25% Moscato, 20% Arneis, 5% Chardonnay)

The meal was delicious (also, no Porgy bones!), but this is is a pretty dull presentation. I could easily have addd a red tomato, at least, or any of the parti-colored cherry tomatoes sitting on the windowsill only a few feet away, but we can see that I didn’t.  Or would it have hurt to add some parsley for the bare spot on the plate (especially since I think of parsley as vegetable)?  Maybe next time.

• three-ounce Porgy fillets from PE & DD Fish, pan-seared in a bit of butter along with sliced scallions John D. Madura Farms, along with some salt, then basted several times with the the scallion butter, and, after turning the fish over, basted some more, now with the scallion butter to which a mix of chopped herbs [6 herbs in this case] had been added at the time the fish was flipped, continuing until the Porgy was cooked through (the recipe was slightly modified from one written by Melissa Clark)
• Japanese eggplant from Bodhitree Farm, first cut in half, then scored, the cut side spread with a mixture of olive oil, finely chopped garlic, and fresh oregano from Central Valley Farm, seasoned, then pan-grilled (the excellent recipe is pulled, unaltered, from Mario Batali)
• a Burgundy Sauvignon Blanc (yup), from Auxerre, Saint-Bris Sauvignon 2012. from Jean-Marc Brocard

• crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood, heated in a heavy iron pan, then topped with a bit of salsa verde assembled with lovage, capers, garlic, parsley stems, arugula and olive oil
• tiny red and orange bell peppers from Norwich Meadows Farm, caramelized, then mixed with sliced red onion which had been marinating in red wine vinegar for about twenty minutes, finished with sautéed homemade bread crumbs
• an Oregon Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley Montnore Estate 2013