I’m indebted to Rhode Island for this meal. Ever since I learned that ‘blackfish’ was the same species I knew as ‘tautog’ when I lived in Rhode Island, it’s become a New York favorite.

I had arrived a little late at the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturday, where both Eric and Paul, working the stall of Pura Vida Fisheries, suggested I choose the one remaining blackfish/tautog fillet.  It looked beautiful, and I wanted to take the suggestion, but the problem was that it barely weighed half a pound.   Some background:  Every time I visit, as Paul wraps up my fish choice he asks, “what else?”, and every time I have to respond that I can only handle one fish at a time.  Because I wanted to fill out my ration for the evening, this time I think I was able to make him happy.

They had Scallops which had been harvested that very morning, and scallops would be a natural choice to go with the tautog. I might have found a way to include both the shell- and fin-fish on the same plate had not Franca at Berried Treasures a few minutes later presented me with a small handful of fava beans (mixed inadvertently with a few peas).  My entrée had suddenly grown into two separate courses.

 

The berries which constituted the third course were something of a lagniappe, since I had spotted them a little later at Norwich Meadows Farm where I was only looking for a contorno for the fillet (I zoomed in on some very healthy looking lacinato, or cavalo nero).

The debt for this very pleasant meal had thus been extended to at least two other farmers.

The first course featured the scallops.

• scallops which had been harvested that same morning, from Pura Vida Fisheries, washed, drained, and dried very thoroughly, then pan grilled, finished with a squeeze of lemon juice, and drizzled with olive oil, accompanied on the plate with a small amount of fava beans and an even smaller number of peas, both from Berried treasures, briefly blanched in salted water

The tautog dominated the main course.

• tautog, or blackfish, from Pura Vida Fisheries [prepared following a recipe by Melissa Clark published in the Times four years ago, substituting a mix of excellent cayenne pepper and a dulce paprika for Aleppo pepper], seasoned, seared, cooked with halved Gaeta olives from Buon Italia, and drizzled with ‘tomato water’ prepared earlier, using heirloom tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm and rosemary from Stokes Farm, finished with torn basil from a live Full Bloom Market Garden plant from Whole Foods, and spearmint from Phillips Farm
• lacinato from Norwich Meadows Farm, braised with two small heads of fresh garlic form Lucky Dog Organic, salt, and pepper

The dessert was a small dish of berries.

• mixed raspberries (black, red, and golden) from Norwich Meadows Farm, with a dollop of Madagascar Vanilla Ciao Bello gelato, then garnished with torn spearmint – and sprigs of spearmint – from Phillips Farm

The accompaniments, as usual, were wine and music.

• the wine was a French (Bordeau) white, Château Perron Graves 2014
• the music was an album of early-seventeenth-century dances, ‘Terpsichore – Muse Of The Dance / Sempe, Capriccio Stravagante‘

This meal tasted at least as good as it looks in this picture.

• four 3- to 4-ounce Spanish mackerel fillets from Blue Moon Fish Company, washed, dried, brushed with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, pan grilled over high heat for six or seven minutes, transferred to plates and completed with a salsa of cut tomatoes (golden grape Florida tomatoes from Eataly and Maine cherry ‘cocktail’ tomatoes from Whole Foods) which were tossed with olive oil, washed and drained salted capers, some finely-sliced fresh garlic from Lucky Dog Organic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper
• two small white Patty Pan squash from Keith’s Farm, sliced horizontally, tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, chopped fresh garlic from Lucky Dog Organic, salt, and pepper, then pan grilled for about six minutes, added to the plates with the mackerel, and sprinkled with wood sorrel leaves from Bodhitree Farm
• the wine was a Spanish white, Naia D.O. Rueda 2014, from Verdejo old vines
• the music was Richard Strauss’s ‘Ein Heldenleben’, with Bernard Haitink conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra [I can never separate the sound from “The Big Story,” a 1940s Friday night radio drama about heroic newspaper reporters]

• the pasta salad was some spaghettini and snow peas from a dinner of a few days ago, served at room temperature, this time accompanied by some baby greens from Lani’s Farm

• The entrée was a fillet of striped bass from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, marinated for about half an hour in lemon juice, olive oil, sliced fresh garlic from Lucky Dog Organic, stems of fresh oregano from Lani’s Farm, and freshly-ground black pepper, drained and pan-grilled for a few minutes, finished with lemon juice, olive oil, and a mixture of more fresh oregano, now chopped, and parsley from Stokes Farm [the basic recipe is Martha Stewart’s]
• the vegetable was a generous serving of minutina from Norwich Meadows Farm, wilted in medium-hot olive oil in which some sliced fresh garlic from Lucky Dog Organic had [almost] begun to brown

• The dark sweet cherries were from Healthway Farms

 

• The wine, for the first two courses, was a New York white from the Finger Lakes, Brooklyn Winery Chardonnay  2013
• the music was Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in E-flat major, played by Hae-Won Chang

 

I was putting this Tunisian cauliflower frittata together on the same day I was reading the sad story of foreign visitors’ fleeing Tunisia because of warnings of terrorism.  My choice of an entrée had not been influenced by it, but the news added depth to our appreciation of this dish – and of Tunisia.

It’s a simple concoction to put together, can be done even a day ahead of time (and any leftovers taste great even the day after that), and can, and indeed should, be served at room temperature.  A perfect summer meal.

We shared it with a friend who wanted to share some excellent rosé wine with us.  Before we had made that arrangement I had bought some yellow cauliflower from one of my favorite Greenmarket farmers, but it was not enough for this recipe, so I retrieved a 20-ounce head from Eataly and saved the smaller one for another meal.

I set out plates of Speck as an appetizer, even though that element of the meal was hardly Tunisian.

• Speck from Eataly, on a plate with arugula from John D. Maderna Farm which was dressed with oil and lemon, accompanied by slices of whole wheat (‘Integrale’) from Eataly

The picture of the frittata resting on top of my 1931 Magic Chef oven was taken just after it had been removed from the oven the day before we enjoyed it.

• the frittata included a small yellow onion from Norwich Meadows Farm, fresh garlic from Lucky Dog Organic, eggs from Millport Dairy, parsley from Stokes Farm, caraway seeds, Red Cow Parmesan cheese from Eatlay, and a terrific cayenne from Spices and Tease [the recipe is from Martha Rose Shulman in the New York Times]
• a salad of halved tomatoes (red cherry from from Norwich Meadows Farm, and golden golden grape Florida tomatoes from Eataly) tossed with sliced small Persian cucumbers from Norwich Meadows Farm, dressed with olive oil, a red rioja wine vinegar, and torn spearmint leaves from Phillips Farm
• the central wine of the evening was a German rosé, Koehler Ruprecht 2014 Pinot Noir Rosé Kabinett trocken from the Pfalz
• the music was our conversation

While we were enjoying this meal two weeks back, Barry said that he doesn’t want to have steak unless it’s as good as this one.

I hadn’t really planned a dinner for that Saturday evening, so it was serendipity when we found ourselves in the West Village, more or less shut out (because of the enormous line) of the last day of Gavin Brown’s crowd-drawing and crowd-pleasing show, ‘Untitled: 12 Horses‘.  Barry suggested we walk a bit further in the rain and check out what the people at Hudson & Charles might be able to tempt us with, and we went hiome with two beautiful Delmonico steaks.

We had a small cheese course after the entrée.

• Delmonico steaks from Hudson & Charles finished with lemon, savory from Berried Treasures, a drizzle of olive oil on the steaks after they had been pan grilled
• breakfast radishes from Rogowski Farm, roasted on a small Pampered Chef pan with branches of thyme from Eckerton Hill
• garlic scapes from John D. Madura Farm, tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper, then pan grilled
• the cheese was ‘Pearl’, from Seal Cove Farm (a pasteurized goat and cows’ milk cheese from Lamoine, Maine), Maine, served with toasts of a sourdough bâtard from She Wolf Bakery at the Greenmarket
• the wine was a California red, Jacqueline Bahue Cabernet Franc, Lodi 2013

This was a very simple, very easily, very fresh summer pasta dish, which, because the spaghettini required so little cooking and the sauce almost none, barely heated up the kitchen.

• ten ounces of the truly excellent pasta, Setaro Torre Annunziata (Napoli) spaghettini, from Buon Italia, cooked al dente, then tossed with a sauce made of sliced fresh garlic from Lucky Dog Organic almost browned in olive oil, yellow and green snow peas from Norwich Meadows Farm, barely cooked in the oil, four sliced Maine cherry ‘cocktail’ tomatoes from Whole Foods added after the pot had been removed from the heat, then freshly-ground black pepper and chopped lovage from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm added to the mixture before the pasta was added and tossed with the sauce
• the wine was an Italian white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2013
• the music was Mozart piano concerti Nos. 12 and 26, Ronald Brautigam and die Kölner Akademie performing

 

Note to self:  Yes, and very yes.  I don’t know of any reason why this simple entrée should have turned out better than anythings scallop-related I’d prepared in the past, but it did.  And the cauliflower/tomato/fennel dish was just as tasty as the shellfish.

 

I had bought scallops earlier in the day at the greenmarket, largely because we werenfresh garlic from Lucky Dog Organic ‘t certain how long we might be at Jade Townsend’s Crazy Garage Sale that evening, and scallops take only minutes from start to finish.  It would be accompanied by a small head of golden cauliflower I already had on hand and was keeping an eye on, and I knew I could do all kinds of good things with it that wouldn’t take much longer.

• ten sea scallops from Pura Vida Fisheries, washed, rinsed and dried very thoroughly, then pan grilled, finished with a squeeze of lemon juice, and drizzled with olive oil [the simple procedure is included in Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers’ ‘Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe‘, possibly the most indispensable volume in my kitchen library, as I have found so many of my favorite, and simplest, recipes there]
• flowerets of a ten-ounce golden cauliflower from Norwich Meadows Farm, sautéed in a pan in which fresh garlic from Lucky Dog Organic, some crushed dried chili peppers and fennel seeds had been heated, the mix then braised for a few minutes along with halved and seeded Maine cherry ‘cocktail’ tomatoes from Whole Foods, finished with fresh basil leaves torn off of a live plant (Full Bloom Market Garden, Whately, Massachusetts), also from Whole Foods [the recipe appears here]
• the wine was a Portuguese white, Vaca das Cordas Vinho Verde 2014
• the music, in addition to works by other composers broadcast on Counterstream Radio that evening, was Frank Zappa, ‘Times Beach III’, from the 1993 album, ‘Yellow Shark’

Both courses were pretty Italian.

 

I often regret that not enough tentacles were included in the bag of cleaned squid I purchase, but this time the balance was totally reversed. I went home with all but the last half pound of the fishmonger’s squid at the Greenmarket on Monday, which may explain both the proportion of tentacles and the diminutive size of both tentacles and bodies.  I called it a win, since tentacles add a welcome texture to the mix, and the smaller-size squid bodies themselves have a more delicate texture – and taste – than the larger, and they take almost no time to cook on a grill pan (a boon on a warm summer evening).

The squid was delicious; I think the unusual lemon and the fresh garlic I had on hand had much to do with it.

It was accompanied by a couple handfuls of an Italian green, minutina, which is just beginning to be appreciated in the U.S.

• tiny squid bodies and tentacles from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, marinated for about half an hour in lemon zest and lemon juice of a slightly sweet, organic lemon from Trader Joe’s, thinly-sliced fresh garlic from the Greenmarket, olive oil, dried Italian oregano, salt, and pepper, then removed from the marinade and pan-grilled briefly over high heat, removed and put on plates, sprinkled with juice from the same lemon used in the marinade and some chopped parsley from Stokes Farm  [a recipe for the squid, with specific instructions appears here]
• minutina from Norwich Meadows Farm, very cautiously not-quite-wilted in a bit of oil where a clove of the same fresh head of garlic had been heated but not yet begun to brown, the greens seasoned with salt and pepper and some good olive oil
• the wine was an Italian [Sicilian] white, Regaleali Bianco 2013
• the music was a glorious performance of a glorious piece, Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 16 [16 piano trios!], with Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich

 

And then there was the dessert.

Not Italian?  The utensils.  And yes, that really is a (modern) black ‘Fiesta’ bowl; also, a (much older) ‘German silver‘ spoon.

 

Dessert doesn’t often get a chance to for an appearance on our table, but I try to keep it interesting when it does, and, if possible, relate it to the entrée.  In this case I stayed with the Italian theme in at least four of the five elements of the sweet:  Blueberries probably didn’t get to Italy from North America until the mid-century, but the gelato, the natural brown sugar, the syrup, and the cookie are definitely Italian in spirit, if not in manufacturing origin.

I apologize for the fact that the contents of the bowl in the image above are a little disarranged;  I had already had eaten a spoonful of the dessert before Barry asked if I didn’t want to take a picture.

• blueberries with a dollop of Madagascar Vanilla Ciao Bello gelato, and a sauce composed of a few of the berries which had been macerated a bit with Toschi Orzata Orgeat syrup mixed with turbinado sugar, garnished with one subtle Lattemiele Cookie from Trader Joe’s

I love blood sausage, regardless which cultural environment produces it, and the Spanish do as well by it as any other.

The day was warm. To avoid introducing heat into the kitchen and dining area we were thinking of having a simple indoor picnic, but then I remembered that a friend had given us some morcilla a while back and that we hadn’t yet figured out how we were going to enjoy it.  Maybe it wouldn’t rewuire much cooking, and since I was home all afternoon anyway, following the dramatic developments in Greece, for ideas I could do some paper file browsing and an online search.   It turned out that my folders contained absolutely nothing, and neither of my two Iberian cookbooks offered any useful suggestions, other than outlines for preparations far more elaborate than I would want to undertake under any circumstances (one of the reasons I love Italian cookery so much).  Using a search engine however, I managed to assemble some sketches which I was able to put together as a rough outline for an entrée which would incorporate the morcilla.

I ended up with a fairly simple preparation which featured materials I already had on hand.

• three tablespoons of pine nuts allowed to turn golden in a little olive oil, then removed and set aside, some Despaña Brand Morcilla (four links, a total of 8 oz.), the gift of a friend, cut into thick rounds with the skin left on, added to the oil in the pan, along with a few tablespoons of mixed raisins, all stirred and fried for a few minutes, followed by the addition of a few tablespoons of rosé wine (opened the day before and kept in the refrigerator door), which was simmered for about four minutes before the pine nuts were added back to the pan, the whole then spooned over a previously-assembled salad of radicchio from Tamarack Hollow Farm, arugula from Whole Foods, and a mélange of herbs (parsley from Stoke’s Farm. lovage from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, tarragon from Stokes Farm, fennel fronds from Bodhitree Farm, and basil from Keith’s Farm), dressed with a very good olive oil, a Rioja red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper
• tiny baby leeks from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, rolled in olive oil, minced garlic, a bit of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, then quickly pan-grilled, finished with chopped thyme from Eckerton Hill Farm
• the bread was a whole wheat, ‘Integrale’, from Eataly
• the wine was a Spanish red, Finca Millara Beterna Ribiera Sacra Mencia 2012
• the music was that of Lisa Bielawa

 

The grey sole is a magnificent fish to set on a table, not least for its perfect texture.  The flavor is mild, and when very fresh, ethereally mild. It responds best to the most delicate of treatments.  This recipe, which adds a ‘tomato butter’ to the plate after it has been sautéed, stole none of that delicacy, and, in addition to its gentle tastiness, introduced two additional textures to the dish, that of the virtually-raw, very ripe tomatoes, and the liquidness of the subtly-aromatic sauce.  I had worked with the recipe in the past, but always with substitutions; this was the first time I happened to have the designated tarragon on hand, and it was definitely the best version.

As far as the contorno was concerned, the beet greens were virtually the only vegetable I had in the kitchen that day, and I didn’t want to keep them longer.  I really love beet greens, but I’ve decided their astringency does not make them the best compliment to a delicate fish.

• seven small Long Island grey sole fillets (a total of 13 ounces) from Pura Vida Fisheries, cooked in a pan over medium high heat for a very few minutes, turning once, then placed on plates, a couple of spoons of ‘tomato butter’ [see the next bullet point] placed on top
• tomato butter, made by cooking in butter a tiny amount of shallot from John D. Madura Farm, letting the flavored butter cool slightly before being poured over halved fresh large Maine cherry ‘Cocktail Tomatoes’ from Whole Foods which had earlier been combined with chopped tarragon from Stokes Farm, the butter then seasoned with salt and drops of red wine vinegar
• the wine was a French white, Château Perron Graves 2014
• the music was that of Gaspard Fritz