This pretty simple recipe, which I first came across only three months ago, has quickly become my favorite way to enjoy fresh cod.

Last night Barry’s mother Earline joined us, and the number of my muses immediately doubled.  This cod en persillade was absolutely the very best tasting – and looking – and touching – to date.

• two 8-ounce fillets of fresh cod from American Pride Seafood, brought to room temperature, seasoned with salt on both sides, then only the top side (former skin side) brushed with a little French dijon mustard which had been mixed with a very small amount of water to make it easier to spread, the two pieces dipped into a mixture of homemade breadcrumbs mixed with some finely-chopped parsley from Whole Foods, browned briefly, but only on the side coated with the mustard and breadcrumb mix, in a little olive oil inside a tin-lined copper au gratin pan, transferred to a 325º oven and cooked until the fish began to flake (about 15 minutes this time, because the pieces were thick), sprinkled with scissored slices from half a dozen whole baby chive plants from Rogowski Farm [the recipe is based on Thomas Keller’s ‘Wild Cod en Persillade‘
• late-season small-leaf cavolo nero, or black kale, from Tamarack Hollow Farm, briefly wilted with olive oil and two halved garlic cloves from from Berried Treasures Farm, after the garlic had first been heated in the oil, and finished with a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of a sweet Frost Lisbon Lemon, grown locally by Fantastic Gardens of Long Island,
• two baby fennel ‘bulbs’ from Norwich Meadows Farm, and their stems, sliced roughly and slowly braised for a few minutes in olive oil and a large, slightly-squished garlic clove from Berried Treasures, most of a red cayenne pepper from Oak Grove Plantation and 6 halved Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from While Foods added and cooked until softened, the mix seasoned with salt and pepper and finished with a squeeze of sweet lemon and chopped fennel fronds
• the wine was a Spanish (Galicia) white, Benito Santos Igrexario de Saiar Albariño 2014
• the music was Yle Klassinen, streaming