This dish was a snap to put together, but it tasted as luscious as it looks.
- fresh spinach and ricotta-filled Agnolotti, or demi-lunes from Luca Donofrio‘s fresh pasta shop inside Eataly’s Flatiron location, served with a sauce that began with heating, until it became fragrant, one halved Rocambole garlic clove from Keith’s Farm with a tablespoon or so of olive oil inside a heavy, high-sided tin-lined copper pot, adding 3 tiny scallions from Willow Wisp Farm, chopped, heating them until softened, then stirring in 5 ripe Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market, halved, the mix seasoned with sea salt and Freshly-ground black pepper, sprinkled with homemade breadcrumbs, which had first been browned in a little olive oil with a pinch of sea salt, ending up arranged in shallow bowls, garnished with a little purple radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and drizzled around the edges with a bit more olive oil
There was a first course, and it was even simpler to put together than the ‘primi‘.
- a few pounces of La Quercia Ridgetop Speck, drizzled with a small amount olive oil
- a bit of ‘wild cress’ from Lani’s Farm, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, drizzled with a very small amount of olive oil and an and even smaller portion of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon
- slices from a loaf of Eataly’s wonderful, crusty ‘Mediterraneo’ (whole rye flour, stone-milled wheat flour, 5 seeds, some millet and farro)
- the wine throughout was a California (Central Coast) rosé, Keith Hock Central Coast Rosé 2016, from Naked Wines
- the music was Nicolo Porpora’s 1737 opera, ‘Il Gedeone’, Martin Haselböck conducting the Vienna Academy and the Nova Vocal Ensemble, with Kai Wessel (Countertenor), Ulf Bästlein (Bass), Linda Perillo (Soprano), Henning Voss (Countertenor), Jörg Waschinski (Soprano), and Johannes Chum (Tenor)