And it still tastes like musty caramels.

But then there’s much more to say about it, including the subtle variations which different sauces can bring to a good pasta like this Sfoglini red fife blend.

And this particular recipe is very useful for quickly assembling a good meal after coming home late, as we did last night (I think we may even have beaten the time it would have taken a good pizza to arrive).

• eight ounces of Sfoglini ‘organic red fife blend zucca’, purchased at the Greenmarket Regional Grains Project stall in Union Square Greenmarket, cooked al dente, mixed with a sauce made by starting out with 2 large cloves of ‘German Hardneck‘ garlic from Race Farm, sliced, and a little dried red pepper flakes, heating both in a large cast iron enameled pan for about one minute, adding some chopped collard greens from Tamarack Hollow Farm, stirring the mix for 5 minutes, or until tender, pouring in 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, and then the zest from most of one lemon, emulsified by stirring the pasta for a minute or 2 over low heat, along with some reserved pasta water, the pasta served in bowls with grated pecorino romano cheese from Buon Italia on top
• the wine was an Italian (Piedmont) white, The Piedmont Guy Ercole Monferratu DOC Bianco 2015
• the music was that of the fantastic creative and experimental new music champion, Hans Zender, from the album, ‘HANS ZENDER: Cabaret Voltaire’, which includes ‘Cabaret Voltaire’ and ‘Mnemosyne – Hölderlin lesen IV’, performed by Klangforum Wien, Salome Kammer, and Hans Zender; we listened to it on Spotify

The tomatoes were piling up again, but since I already had made a decision about which vegetables would accompany the salmon, I just added a simple salad/appetizer course.

• a handful or two of arugula from Alewife Farm, torn into fork-size pieces, topped with wedges of ripe red heirloom tomatoes from Lani’s Farm, drizzled with a good olive oil, good sea salt, freshly-ground pepper, and a bit of white balsamic vinegar, sprinkled with torn New York City basil from Gotham Greens via Whole Foods
• the wine was an Italian (Piedmont) white, Ioppa Vino Bianco San Grato 2015

 

When it came to the main course, there were micro things everywhere, perhaps partly just because they had been hanging around.

• one 15-ounce fresh (never frozen) wild sockeye salmon fillet from Whole Foods, coated on both sides with a mix of light brown turbinado sugar, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, freshly ground allspice, freshly ground nutmeg, and the zest of half of a lemon, marinated in the refrigerator in a covered dish for about 4 hours, after which time the fish was rinsed, patted dry, brought to room temperature, oiled generously, and cooked on an enameled grill pan, flesh side down, removed when the inside was medium pink, the outside crisp and smoky, divided onto 2 plates, sprinkled with micro scallions from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and served with lemon wedges [the recipe I used was fundamentally this one from Melissa Clark]
• flat green or Romano beans from Berried Treasures Farm, par-boiled, drained, dried (shaking over a flame in the pan in which they had cooked), reheated in a bit of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with purple micro radish from Windfall Farms
• two medium ‘new’ potatoes (which had eventually matured in the crisper, and which were probably Red Norland) from Central Valley Farm, boiled in well-salted water, drained, dried in the still-warm glass pot, quartered, rolled in a little olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with fennel flower from Rise & Root Farm
• the wine was a California (Solano) red, David Akiyoshi California Pinot Noir 2015

 

• the music throughout the meal was that of Charles Wuorinen, and notably, his trio for flute, bass clarinet, and piano, ‘Metagong’, heard on Spotify

This is what our eggs looked like this morning while they were still in the iron pan. I’m not happy with the picture I took of them once they were on a plate, so I’ll have to describe what’s missing in the image above and added later.

• aside from the 6 eggs from Millport Dairy Farm, sliced red scallion stems from Norwich Meadows Farm, 10 small ripe cherry tomatoes from Stokes Farm, Maldon salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, there were also slices of toast from a loaf of Eataly’s ‘Rustico Classico’, thick slices of fried bacon from Millport Dairy Farm,   dried crushed organioc wild fennel flowers from Buon Italia, and fresh cut fennel blossoms from Rise & Root Farm, a small mound of chopped papalo from Lani’s Farm, and a wonderful aromatic Middle-Eastern-style seasoning blend, ‘L’eKama‘ from NY Shuk
• the music was a biblical ‘passion’ which has rarely been executed by composers, that of Saint Mark, and specifically Reinhard Keiser’s ‘Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet‘, which we heard on Spotify

A head of lettuce may be a head of lettuce – but sometimes it’s a rose – here, specifically, either Boston, Butter, or Bibb lettuce (I forgot to ask Tyler), seen yesterday at the Alewife Farm Union Square Greenmarket stand.

Heirlooms, specifically, the many varieties of heirloom tomatoes seen at the Union Square Greenmarket stand of Lani’s Farm September 26.

I know that the quantity of heirloom tomatoes might seem pretty extravagant, but then every thing about this dish is pretty extravagant, including the richness of the flavors.

• about one pound of very-thinly-sliced Satina potatoes from Tamarack Hollow Farm, seasoned with salt and pepper, mixed with most of a mix of 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 cloves of thinly-sliced German Hardneck garlic from Race Farm, salt, and pepper, roasted in a pan for 15 minutes in a very hot oven until starting to crisp, the potatoes then covered with a seasoned one-pound bluefish fillet from Pura Vida Fisheries which was itself covered with a mix of another thinly-sliced garlic garlic clove, one more tablespoon of olive oil, a tablespoon of lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley and lovage from Keith’s Farm, after which slices of several different kinds of heirloom tomatoes from various Greenmarket farms, seasoned, and about 10 halved Kalamata olives from Whole Foods were scattered over the fish and the potatoes, the pan returned to the oven for another 15 minutes, before it was finished, on the 2 plates, with more chopped parsley and lovage
• the wine was a California (Lodi) rosé, Karen Birmingham Rosé Lodi 2015
• the music was Q2 Music, streaming early Steve Reich compositions, ending with his 1967, ‘Violin Phase’ (dinner ran very late, in fact I’ve only just finished the dishes and it’s now one o’clock in the morning, and as I’m writing this, listening to his 1970 ‘Four Organs‘)

The beautiful colors weren’t the half of it.

Ultimately it was the taste that we remember.

• two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (the ingredients are crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), seared/heated in a cast iron pan, 2 to 3 minutes for each side, served on 2 plates surrounded by a salsa composed of quartered sun gold cherry tomatoes from Lani’s Farm, a little chopped red scallion from Norwich Meadows Farmsalt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of homemade French Basque piment d’Espellate purchased in a small town north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec last year from the producer’s daughter, much of one small red Calabrian chili pepper from Campo Rosso Farm, and some torn fresh basil, also from Campo Rosso Farm, after which the ‘cakes’ and salsa were scattered with micro scallions from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• one modest-size purple broccoli head/branch from Tamarack Hollow Farm, the florets separated and the stem[s] sliced fairly thinly, tossed in a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and dried pepperoncino, spread onto a ceramic oven pan, roasted at 400º for about 20 minutes, removed from the oven, and, when the pan had begun to cool down, drizzled with a little lemon juice and olive oil, stirred and served

• We nibbled on rat-tail radish from Alewife Farm, and sipped a little wine while the meal was being put together.

• the wine was a French (Loire) white,  Jean Pascal Aubron Folle Blanche Gros Plant Du Pays Nantais 2014 (more here on the wine and the vigneron)
• the music included a work for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and percussion, with orchestra, ‘Mina’, by the composer Dai Fujikura, available on Spotify

This is a hearty meal which could certainly be served in the summer, but it tastes even better when the season is cooler. It’s something of a harbinger of fall, and it’s a favorite for both of us.

The formula is wonderful, and, making it even more wonderful is its versatility: Its author, Mark Bittman, says, “The recipe can be finished with almost any firm fish fillet.” I’ve run through a small tally myself.

• four monkfish tails, totalling about 18 ounces, from American Seafood Company, roasted with two thirds of a cup of a combination of Moroccan and Kalamata olives from Whole Foods, pits removed, on top of a bed of scrubbed, unpeeled, thinly-sliced and seasoned fingerling potatoes from Lower Hayfields, a friend’s Hudson Valley garden, which had just been roasted (in a very generous amount of olive oil), with more than a dozen (!) dry bay leaves, finished with a sprinkling of purple radish micro greens from Windfall Farms
• indigo rose cherry tomatoes from Lani’s Farm, heated until starting to blister over medium high heat inside a heavy enameled cast iron skillet in which two red scallions red scallions from Norwich Meadows Farm, sliced, and one sliced large clove of ‘German hardneck‘ garlic from Race Farm had been already been allowed to heat until fragrant, the heat turned off and the mix allowed to sit for a couple minutes, further softening the tomatoes, which were then seasoned with salt and pepper and sprinkled with torn New York CIty basil from Gotham Greens, via Whole Foods, and chopped parsley from Keith’s Farm
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Daryl Groom Chardonnay Russian River Valley 2015 from Naked Wines
• the music was Q2 Music, streaming

“It tastes like musty caramels”, said Henry, who was standing with Reina behind the Greenmarket Regional Grains Project, in reply to my question about the Sfoglini organic red fife blend zucca.

For me that taste morsel was enough of an incentive to purchasing it, and later it would be a sufficient tipoff for deciding on the vegetable I’d combine this artisanal pasta with.

• eight ounces of Sfoglini ‘organic red fife blend zucca’, purchased through the Greenmarket Regional Grains Project stall at the Union Square Greenmarket, cooked al dente, mixed with a sauce in which 2 small-ish pan-grilled Japanese eggplant (sliced 1/2″ thick) from Berried Treasures, then cut into one-inch segments, was combined with one sliced large clove of ‘German Hardneck‘ garlic from Race Farm, which had just been heated in a small separate pan with a small finely-chopped red Calabrian pepper from Campo Rosso Farm, the pasta and sauce emulsified in the emptied pasta pot by stirring with some reserved pasta water, a little lemon juice and zest added just before a generous amount of chopped peppermint from Lani’s Farm was added in, served in the bowls with a garnish of micro purple radish from Windfall Farms

There was a serving of prosciutto and arugula before the pasta, but the dish and the image is now so familiar on this blog that I didn’t want to lead with it, or go into detail once again.

Okay, omitting it altogether also seems wrong, so here it is.

• Applegate prosciutto from Whole Foods, drizzled with a very good olive oil from Campania (Syrenum D.O.P. Peninsula Sorrentina), served with arugula from Alewife Farm, the greens also drizzled with the olive oil, but also with a little lemon juice, and seasoned with salt and pepper, served with slices of ‘Commune’ from Sullivan Street Bakery

• the wine through both courses was an Italian (Piedmont) white, The Piedmont Guy Ercole Monferratu DOC Bianco 2015
• the music was the album, ‘Hard Line’, by h2 quartet

I’ve used it before, but, like all recipes, or at least the ones we amateurs play with, it turns out at least a little differently each time. Last night I worked that part even more by picking tomatoes I had never used before in this preparation.

The recipe was one which I had found on the LA Times site 2 years ago; I made only a few adjustments.

As usual, all of the ingredients (save for the oil, butter, salt, pepper, and vinegar – and the wine), came from the Union Square Greenmarket. The tomatoes were wonderful, and the small okra was a real find.

• one 12-ounce flounder fillet from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, lightly seasoned, cooked for a few minutes in olive oil and butter in a heavy oval copper pan over high heat, turning once, divided into two servings, placed on the plates, a couple of spoonfuls of ‘tomato butter’ [see below] arranged on and around the fish
• tomato butter, begun by cooking, inside a small pan with a generous amount of butter until slightly soft and fragrant, one large fresh red scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm, then letting the flavored butter cool slightly before being poured over 4 ounces of halved sun gold cherry tomatoes from Lani’s Farm, chopped, adding 2 tablespoons of fresh papalo leaves [porophyllum ruderale], also from Lani’s Farm, the mix seasoned with salt, pepper, and a few drops of good Spanish wine vinegar (Rioja)
• small okra from Norwich Meadows Farm, sautéed over a high flame in a large cast iron pan with a little olive oil and a good part of one small red Calabrian pepper from Campo Rosso Farm, seasoned with sea salt
• the wine was a California (Monterey/Santa Barbara/Sonoma/Napa) white, Joel Gott unoaked Chardonnay 2015
• the music was Q2 Music, streaming, from their ’24-hour Steve Reich Marathon’