When I stopped inside Eataly’s Flatiron store on Friday, on my way home from the Union Square Greenmarket, I saw that Luca Donofrio‘s fresh pasta shop had some black truffle-filled pasta. I couldn’t use it that night, but I mad a note for myself (that is, a cellphone camera pic) to go back the next day or so.
I went back 2 days later, and we made a meal of it, with the help of an antipasto.
- the first course was a 2.5-ounce package shared by the 2 of us, of some delicious Principe Prosciutto di Parma from Whole Foods Market, served on a medium size plate arranged across from a spray of Betsey Ryder’s terrific arugula (although this makes no sense at all, the inside of the bag in which I’ve been keeping it smells like a mix of middle eastern spices!), from her family’s 18th-century heritage ‘Ryder Farm’, the arugula was sprinkled with Maldon salt, freshly ground black pepper, drizzled with juice from a fresh organic Whole Foods Market lemon and some good Campania olive oil (Lamparelli O.R.O.); the prosciutto was drizzled with the same oil, and the plate was accompanied by slices of an Eataly sesame baguette
- ten ounces of black truffle agnolotti from Luca Donofrio‘s fresh pasta shop inside Eataly’s Flatiron, briefly boiled, then, reserving a cup of the pasta water, drained and immediately slipped into a large antique high-sided tin-lined copper pan in which 3 tablespoons of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ (12 grams of fat) had been slowly melted, and about half a cup of reserved pasta water added gradually while using a small wooden spatula to stir the mix continually until the liquid had emulsified, seasoned with a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper, divided into 2 warm shallow bowls, finished with some parmigiano reggiano (aged 24 months) from Whole Foods Market grated over the top
- the wine was an Italian (Alto Adige/Südtirol) white, Alois Lageder Pinot Bianco 2017, (pino bianco is known as Weißburgunder in Germany and Austria), from Garnet Wines
- the music was John Blow’s only music theater piece, his 1681 opera, ‘Venus and Adonis’, René Jacobs conducting the Orchestra of the Age Of Enlightenment