It was going to be pasta, and I had a few ounces of oyster mushrooms left from the meal prepared the night before. To show off the mushrooms better, Barry and I both decided that a good conventional wheat pasta might be better this time than one made with a vegetable, or a more-strongly flavored grain.

So great. And there could definitely be a red wine.

For a little pizzazz, visual and taste, all I had to do was reconcile what was in the larders with whatever it seemed might work well with the pasta and mushrooms.

• one sliced ‘yellow shallot’ from Norwich Meadows Farm heated in a little olive oil inside a large antique copper sauce pan until softened, 4 ounces of sliced oyster mushrooms from Blue Oyster Cultivation tossed in and stirred for a few minutes until the mushrooms had softened and begun to brown, then a pinch or two of crushed dried, ripe red shishito peppers (some of the pepper turn out to be hot, just as the fresh shishito do) from Lani’s Farm, tossed in, half of a pound of an excellent artisanal Puglian pasta,‘I Tipici’ Orecchiette Agricola del Sole, from Eataly, that had just finished boiling until al dente, added, along with almost a cup of reserved pasta water, the pasta stirred over high heat until the liquid had emulsified, a good handful or more of lacy mushroom greens from Campo Rosso Farm added and stirred around with the pasta, a few ounces of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano (aged 24 months) from Chelsea Whole Foods Market stirred in, the pasta arranged in broad shallow bowls, some olive oil drizzled around the edges and scissored fresh chives from Phillips Farms tossed on the top
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley) red, Kings Ridge Pinot Noir 2016, from Philippe Wines
• the music was Donizetti’s 1835 romantic opera (libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, based on Andrea Maffei‘s translation of Friedrich Schiller‘s 1800 play, ‘Maria Stuarda’, with Giuseppe Patané conducting the Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Chorus