I used 3 different grill pans in putting this meal together. That may be a first. It may also have been the first time I included some form of garlic in each element of an entrée, although probably not.

But I forgot to include the color.

The image is embarrassingly monochromatic; I hadn’t thought about the aesthetic effect until I was arranging everything on the plates. It’s still no excuse, but the treviso and the eggplant happened to be the only real vegetables in the crisper last night (both in smaller amounts remaining from larger, the majority of which had been used in earlier meals, and each of them almost begs for garlic under most circumstances).

A little red, or orange, or yellow on the plates themselves would definitely have been nice. but to be fair, the vegetables had at least started out with real color.

Still, it was a terrific dinner. The treviso and the eggplant were stars, and while at first I had some doubts about the steaks (mostly related to the decisions of the butcher), we very quickly came to appreciate both the flavor and the texture of this excellent grass-fed beef.

• two 8-ounce rib steaks (roughly 8 ounces each) from the Union Square Greenmarket stand of Lowland Farm, brought to room temperature, dried, well-seasoned with Maldon salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, placed on a very hot cast iron pan grill for just under 5 minutes on each side, removed and arranged on the plates, a little organic lemon juice from Whole Foods Market squeezed on top, sprinkled with some chopped summer savory from Stokes Farm, drizzled with a little olive oil and finished with some chopped garlic flowers from Windfall Farms
• one small head of treviso from Campo Rosso Farm in the union Square Greenmarket (the farm, located in Berks County, Pennsylvania, specializes in chicories, other greens and other vegetables) halved, tied to maintain their shape, marinated for half an hour in a mix of garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, then pan-grilled, untied, and finished with some of the reserved marinade
• 3  baby eggplant (3 different kinds and colors), each cut into 3 slices, mixed with a little olive oil , 5 pitted and sliced Kalamata olives olives from Whole Foods Market, a little finely-chopped garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, pan-grilled over a brisk flame, turning once, sprinkled with torn basil leaves from Stokes Farm, arranged on the plates and drizzled with a bit of olive oil
• the wine, a perfect pairing with the food, was a California (Napa) red, Jac Cole Mosaico Napa Valley 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Il Filosofo’, which is “..the second release in the Basel-based Joseph Haydn Stiftung Foundation’s collaboration..in recording all of Haydn’s 107 symphonies…“