The monkfish recipe is absolutely terrific. I had already been a big fan of couscous, and my enthusiasm had been magnified by my two earlier experiences with this Sicilian treatment of coda di rospo. Somehow joining these few ingredients results in one of the sweetest food marriages I have ever witnessed.

We hadn’t enjoyed chard at home for some time, and this bunch of rainbow chard (larger than we cold consume in one meal, so there will be another appearance) was just about the most beautiful I had ever seen; also, it turned out, possibly the most delicious. Unfortunately it is the very last of this farmer’s bounty we will be be privileged to have on the table: Nevia No’s wonderful Bodhitree Farm has retired.

• one 17-ounce monkfish tail from Blue Moon Fish, prepared using a David Pasternak recipe which includes M’hamsa Couscous from Tunisia (purchased at Whole Foods), olive oil, sliced garlic from Whole Foods, some superb Mutti baby Roma tomatoes from Eataly (also available at Whole Foods), and a handful of  Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, cracked green olives from Dickson’s Farmstand Meats, and almost all of one whole crushed dried Itria-Sirissi chili (peperoncino di Sardegna intero from Buon Italia), the fish cooked, because of its size, much longer than specified in the recipe (15 minutes?)
• rainbow chard from Bodhitree Farms, sautéed with olive oil, finished with juice from an organic lemon, and most of another crushed dried Itria-Sirissi chili
• the wine was an Italian (Sardinia) white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2013
• the music was a great evening of Q2 streaming, and included ‘Continuum II’ by Jane Antonia Cornish, and ‘Muistin pitka jyrina’, by Riikka Talvitie