dinner, 7/31/11

The small list of ingredients may look pretty unexciting, but this pasta recipe is actually a small masterpiece.   Also, while sometimes the whole may be declared better than its parts, when the parts are all of the quality of those I managed to assemble for this dish, it should have been obvious from the start that it would be terrific.

• appetizers:  Ligurian olives, fennel-flavored taralli (both from Buon Italia), quartered radishes (from the Union Square Greenmarket) and salt
• drink: Arak (Kefraya, from Lebanon) mixed with water
• Linguine (Linguettine, Setaro, from Buon Italia) cooked with chunks of new red potato and sliced thin string beans from the wonerful Franca at Berried Treasures in the Greenmarket, and finished with a pesto of basil, garlic, pecorino, pine nuts and oil [see Mark Bittman’s recipe, “Trenette with Pesto,” from the New York Times]
• wine:  Sardinian, La Cala 2009 Vermentino di Sardegna from Phillipe Wine