We had planned to go out to dinner with visiting relatives this night, but after the exertions of the Women’s March they had begged off, pleading fatigue. There was no time to pick up the ingredients for a substitute, but fortunately I had a package of very good pasta in the freezer, which I try to always have on hand for just such ’emergencies’.

• a 10-ounce package of frozen Rana portobello-mushroom-and-ricotta-filled ravioli from Eataly, boiled in a large pot of water for two minutes, drained and slipped into a high-sided tin-lined pan, in which a little sliced celery from Foragers, an equal amount of sliced baby leek from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, a large pinch of golden home-dried Habanada pepper, also from Norwich meadows (acquired fresh last season), had been heated for a few minutes, little more than sweating the vegetables, everything stirred together over a low flame with some of the reserved pasta water, seasoned with freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, sprinkled with a little scissored chives from Two Guys form Woodbridge and chopped parsley and mint form Eataly, the pasta and sauce placed in shallow bowls and scattered with toasted pine nuts from Whole Foods Market, and topped with micro arugula from Windfall Farms
• the wine was an Italian (Tuscany) red, Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Toscana Rosso 2013
• the music was Vivaldi’s ‘Teuzzone’, performed by Jordi Savall’s Le Concert des Nations