Dinner almost had to be a radish pasta.

I was surprised (embarrassed) to learn earlier in the evening that when I had recently bought some radishes, there were still some sitting inside the crisper. I think that was a first for me, but at least the they had arrived in 2 very different colors.

I incorporated the older, purple roots in last night’s dinner, but the leafy greens I used came from the new red ones, not because I wanted to be fussy, but because we’d already consumed the ones that had been attached to the others.

• two tablespoons of homemade breadcrumbs added to a cast iron skillet in which a tablespoon of olive oil had been heated over a medium flame, toasted, stirring frequently, until golden and crisp (only a minute or two), transferred to a small bowl and mixed with a little zest from an organic Chelsea Whole Foods Market lemon, then set aside while the pasta was prepared: eight ounces of a local pasta, Sfoglini trumpets, cooked al dente inside a large pot of boiling salted water and drained, with one cup of pasta cooking liquid reserved, added to a sauce which had begun with 6 ounces of purple radishes from Lani’s Farm, sliced into 1/4″ rounds, sautéed in a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat inside a large antique copper high-sided pan until they were tender and beginning to brown in spots (about 2 minutes), the radishes removed to a small bowl and another tablespoon of oil added to the pan, together with one sliced stem of spring garlic from Lani’s Farm, the allium stirred until fragrant, which was basically a matter of seconds, followed by the addition of the fresh greens from a different bunch of red radishes, these from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, that had been washed in several changes of water then roughly chopped, along with some of the reserved pasta cooking water, the leaves stirred until only beginning to wilt, the cooked pasta itself now added and mixed with the greens, stirring, more pasta water added as necessary until the liquid had emulsified, the reserved radishes themselves now returned and mixed in, followed by a half tablespoon or so of juice from an organic Whole Foods lemon and some sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a pinch of dried smoked serrano pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, the sauced pasta arranged in 2 shallow bowls, sprinkled with the bread crumb mixture prepared earlier and garnished with micro ruby streak mustard from Norwich Meadows Farm
• the wine was a brilliant Greek (Peloponnese) white, Tetramythos Muscat Sec 2015, from Copake Wine Works
• the music was the album, Georg Friedrich Händel: ‘To All Lovers Of Musick’, Op. 5 (trio sonatas), performed by Eduardo Lopez Banzo and the ensemble Al Ayre Español, conducted from the keyboard by the harpsichordist