The pasta itself was the star here. It was fresh cavatelli, from Eataly, where its making was overseen by Luca Donofrio, Eataly’s pastaio.

The recipe for the sauce, in this combination a rich and complex complement to a surprisingly earthy plain pasta, was a slight re-imagining of Mark Bittman’s ‘Pasta With Garlic, Tomatoes and Anchovies‘.

• two roughly-chopped spring garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm placed in a copper skillet over medium heat along with some dried Itria-Sirissi chili (peperoncino di Sardegna intero) from Buon Italia, cooked until the garlic was somewhat tender, 2 small serrano peppers from Forager’s and 7 salted anchovies from Buon Italia, filleted, added and heated until the anchovies had fallen apart, followed by over a cup of halved Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, and then the chopped green sections of the fresh garlic, everything cooked until the mix had become ‘saucy’ (about 5 minutes), salt and pepper added, tossed with 12 ounces of just-boiled hand-made fresh cavatelli from Eataly, and served with grated ‘Organic Parmigiana Reggiani Hombre’, from Whole Foods, and chopped parsley, also from Whole Foods
• the wine was an Italian (Sardinia) white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2013
• the music was Peter Maxwell Davies’ “..sprawling, elemental work, ..wind-swept and rain-lashed..” Symphony No. 3, the composer conducting the BBC Philharmonic