I’ve not been able to find decent-size scallops at the Greenmarket this winter. On Monday however P.E. & D. D. Seafood had some that appeared larger than any I had seen since last fall, so I scooped up a few for this dinner.

Along with them we enjoyed the very last of the cultivated upland cress I had brought home from Alewife Farm a few days before; I was also very happy to have some local (well, at least local northeastern New England) tomatoes on the windowsill, and I was almost shocked to find that Lani’s Farm was back in the Greenmarket in full force on Monday, or at least in force sufficient to be able to offer what I have to believe was the first broccoli rabe of the season (even if I know it was managed with the help of a ‘high tunnel’).

Finally, sharp eyes will notice, from the evidence in the picture above, that [like my Mother] I don’t wear my ring while cooking.

• medium-size sea scallops from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, washed, rinsed and, ideally, very thoroughly dried (I may not have been so thorough this time, since the grill marks are faint), seasoned with salt and pepper, pan grilled for about 90 seconds on each side, finished with a squeeze of Lisbon lemon juice from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and a drizzle of olive oil, then scattered with the last of the cultivated upland cress from Alewife Farm we had already enjoyed in several meals [the basic recipe for this entrée, minus the cress, is included in Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers’, ‘Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe‘]
• half a dozen Maine cherry ‘cocktail’ tomatoes from Whole Foods, slow-roasted with a generous amount of dried Italian oregano from Buon Italia, olive oil, and two halved garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm
• young, tender, and mild rapini from Lani’s Farm, wilted with two garlic halves, from Keith’s Farm, which had previously sweated a bit in olive oil, the vegetable then seasoned with salt and pepper
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Ferrari-Carano Fumé Blanc Sauvignon Blanc 2014
• the music was Hans Pfitzner’s Sextet Op 55, performed by the Ulf Hoelscher Ensemble, which was written in the summer of 1945, immediately after the war, by one account, “..while Pfitzner was homeless, in hospital for a broken arm and, like Richard Strauss also surveying the results of his loyalty to the Nazi regime, taking refuge in the Romanticism of the past.”; read the liner notes to the Ulf Hoelscher Ensemble recording, and also this very sad Wikipedia entry, and Paul Griffith’s 1997 piece in the Times