oregano-roasted squid; boiled potatoes, chives; lacinato

I must have appeared flummoxed.

Warren said I should have the squid.

The fisherman was right. We love squid [58 results show up on this blog], it had been a while since I’d served it, it was definitely very fresh. preparing it as I do is a pretty low key operation, and it was delicious.

  • once the oven had been heated to 400º, just over a pound of very fresh squid, bodies and tentacles, from American Seafood Company, rinsed and very carefully dried, quickly arranged inside a large rectangular enameled cast iron pan that had been heated on top of the stove until hot and its the cooking surface brushed with olive oil once the oil itself had become quite hot, immediately sprinkled with a heaping teaspoon of super-pungent dried Sicilian oregano from Buon Italia, a good section of a peperoncino Calabresi secchia from Buon Italia, and a section of light-colored home-dried habanada pepper (purchased fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm last season), sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, followed by a full 3 tablespoons of juice from an organic Chelsea Whole Foods lemon and a splash of olive oil, the pan placed inside the hot oven and the squid roasted for just 5 minutes, by which time their bodies had ballooned somewhat, the squid removed and arranged on 2 plates and ladled with the cooking juices that had been transferred to a footed glass sauce boat
  • just under a pound of amazingly sweet Natasha potatoes from Phillips Farms, scrubbed, boiled unpeeled in generously-salted water until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried in the still-warm large vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed with a little Trader Joe’s Italian Reserve extra virgin olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and tossed with scissored fresh chives, also from Phillips Farms
  • one bouquet of cavolo nero (aka lacinato, Tuscan kale, or black kale, and other names as well) from Eckerton Hill Farm, the leaves stripped from their stems (which is difficult when the cabbage leaves are as then as these were) wilted briefly inside a large heavy antique tin-lined copper pot in a tablespoon or so of olive oil after several halved cloves of garlic, also from Norwich Meadows, had first been heated there until fragrant and softened, the greens seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with a little more oil

  • the music was a live recording of a tribute concert entitled ‘Glenn Gould – Remodels’, which was a part of a series of exhibitions and concerts dedicated to and marking the 2017 85th birthday of Glenn Gould, curated by Ryuichi Sakamoto, with Alva Noto+Nilo, Christian Fennesz, and Francesco Tristano

[the image of their Maremma vineyard is from the Tenuta Sassoregale site; the ‘Glenn Gould Gathering’ album cover is from Leticia García (twitter @Ms_Golightly)]