It was an amazing collaboration of ingredients, really surprising me when I had only expected a workaday dinner. I knew we would enjoy the very special chicory, even if it had come all the way from northern Italy, and of course the sweet potatoes as well. Adding some sorrel to the latter was a last minute decision, but it turned out to be a very good one.  Finally, I always forget how good this Amish farm’s spicy chorizo really is, and (almost) the last of a jar of a wonderful well-made sweet/tart jelly was exactly what it needed.

• *four 2-ounce links of a very good chorizo sausage from Millport Dairy Farm, pan grilled for a few minutes over a medium flame until heated through, served with a dollop of a garlic oregano jelly from Berkshire Berries [note: I didn’t remove the collagen casings, because I had not been aware they were there until John told me the next day, when I showed him the photograph above, but neither the flavor nor the texture of the sausage was negatively effected)
• *two Japanese sweet potatoes from Samascott Orchards, unpeeled, but scrubbed thoroughly, halved and sliced into one half-inch rounds and crescents, tossed in a bowl with olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, 4 unpeeled Rocambole garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm, and a bit of crushed golden/orange dried habanada pepper, originally fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm last fall, spread onto a large well-seasoned Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan, roasted at 400º for about 20 or 25 minutes, garnished with red-vein sorrel from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• *one  medium head of a northern Italian tardivo radicchio from Flatiron Eataly, prepared mostly using this simple recipe, washing it under cold running water, the moisture shaken off, cut in half lengthwise, and a V-cut made most of the way through the root end, allowing that part to cook more rapidly, the halves arranged inside a small Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan cut side up, covered with thyme sprigs from Westside Market, seasoned generously with salt and pepper and drizzled with a tablespoon of olive oil, baked inside the 400º oven in which the sweet potatoes were cooking, for about 12 minutes, turned over and cooked for some 8 minutes more, turned a second time so the cut side is once again up, returned to the oven, this time for only a couple minutes or so, or until the stem ends were tender when pierced with a thin blunt metal pin (my all-purpose kitchen tester), removed from the oven [note: the tardivo can be served either hot or warm]
• *the wine was an Italian (Sardinia) red, Cardedu, Canonau di Sardegna “Caladu”, 2013, from Flatiron Wines
• *the music was the album, ‘Scherzi Musicali’, with jokey music by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Heinrich Ignaz Biber, and Johann Jakob Walther, Reinhard Goebel conducting Musica Antiqua Cologne