I was just cleaning out the refrigerator to put together a meal before we leave for Portugal, and also trying to avoid wasting anything, and somehow we still managed to enjoy a pretty good dish of pasta, also a pretty dish of pasta.

• six ounces of garlic scapes from Norwich Meadows Farm, sautéed in a large enameled cast iron pot with and a little crushed dried Sicilian pepperoncino from Buon Italia before the addition of the roots from 2 bunches of chioggia beets which had been trimmed of all but a stump of their green stems, scrubbed, cut into wedges, parboiled until almost softened, the beet roots pushed around inside the pot, then joined by many of the roughly-chopped beet leaves themselves, stirring them into the mix until they had wilted, finally 7 ounces of Sfoglini red fife blend zucca, cooked al dente, added with some of reserved pasta water and moved about over a medium flame until the sauce had emulsified, the finished pasta arranged inside 2 shallow bowls and garnished with a bit of homemade breadcrumbs which had been browned in a little olive oil with a pinch of salt [note: with the second helping we enjoyed grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Vache Rosse from Eataly on top, which was as satisfactory a finish as the breadcrumbs]
• the wine was a California (Lodi) rosé, Karen Birmingham Rose Lodi 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was Mozart’s 1771 opera (the boy was but 14 at the time),  ‘Ascanio In Alba’, performed by Jed Wentz conducting Musica ad Rhenum and the Coqu Vocal Ensemble