It was all very simple, except for the part about foraging for the tasty green ‘love children’ of arugula and dandelion.

The creative hand of Franca Tantillo, of Berried Treasures, had actually managed the hard part back on her farm in the western Catskills. She was also the one who had given her somewhat sturdy, spicy green the name, ‘arugulion’. I was told on Friday that the green was some kind of unprogrammed cross between arugula and dandelion that she had just come across on a patch of ground on her farm.

Even before I heard the story, I knew I had to try it.

The very uncomplicated recipe that follows is from ‘I’m Not A Cook‘.

It was so good, we decided to skip the cheese course, and ate it all. Besides, there was half a cup of a great cheese in the dish itself.

• eight ounces of Afeltra linguine from Eataly, cooked in a large pot of salted water until barely al dente, drained, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water, returned to the pot, tossed with 3 tablespoons of butter which had been siting at room temperature for a while and a little over 2 tablespoons of juice from an organic lemon, half of a cup of grated Parmigiano Reggiano Vacche Rosse from Buon Italia tossed with the pasta (in batches, to avoid clumping), the reserved cooking water added as needed while doing so, to keep the pasta loose, 3 ounces of ‘arugulion’ added to the mix and tossed until evenly distributed (this took a little while), seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground Telicherry pepper, a little extra lemon juice added, finished with a light drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was an Italian (Piedmont) white, Ferrando Erbaluce di Caluso La Torrazza 2013, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was from the recording of an October 17, 1944 performance in the Musikvereinssaal of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8, the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler