cooling off

 

We were to leave for three weeks in Germany the next day so I was interested in using as much of the fresh ingredients left in our refrigerator as possible.  I think I did a pretty good job, with absolutely no taste sacrifices. It also looked pretty good. The hardest part of assembling this one-dish meal was deciding which pan (that is, mostly, which size pan) I was going to use.  I ended up with a seasoned thick 11″ steel skillet, 1 3/4″ deep, and it turned out to be just right for the quantity of the ingredients and the amount of heat I wanted to work with.

• those ingredients included, not necessarily in the order in which they were placed in the pan, a couple tablespoons of olive oil; a few chopped ramps from Lucky Dog Organic Farm; 4 or 5 chopped spring shallots from Lani’s Farm; a generous amount of arugulion (a natural wild arugula and dandelion hybrid) from Berried Treasures; 7 Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods; 6 eggs form Millport Dairy; a tablespoon of chopped lovage from Berried Treasures; sea salt; freshly-ground tellicherry pepper; a little Basque Piment d’Espelette which I had purchased from the French maker’s daughter at La Ferme Basque, Charlevoix, Quebec; and a nice explosion of radish micro greens from Two Guys From Woodbridge
• the wine was a New Mexico (Sierra County) sparkling white, Domaine Saint-Vincent Méthode Champenoise Brut New Mexico NV
• the music was four symphonies of C.P.E. Bach and one harpsichord concerto, Norrington directing the Camerata Salzburg, with Florian Birsak on the keyboard

The meal was pretty basic, assembled, except for the very fresh baby squid, from the stock of vegetables I happened to have already had on hand that evening.

Before the end of the meal however, the flavors of the 2 or 3 simply-prepared elements had combined to a wonderful and subtle effect, and, yes, there was a sturdy bread available.

• about one pound of squid, bodies and tentacles, from P.E. & D.D. Seafood in the Union Square Greenmarket, rinsed, dried, then very quickly arranged in a large enameled cast iron pan after it had been heated until hot on top of the range and its cooking surface brushed with olive oil, and, when that was also hot, the cephalopods added to the pan, quickly sprinkled with some super-pungent dried Italian oregano from Buon Italia, one crushed dried Italian pepperoncino, also from Buon Italia, and then juice from an organic lemon, and some olive oil drizzled over the top before the squid was placed in a pre-heated 400º oven and roasted for four or five minutes, removed, distributed onto 2 plates, and drizzled  with the cooking juices
• seven Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, halved and tossed with 3 chopped fresh or spring shallots (they look like scallions) from Lani’s Farm, some salt, pepper, and a little olive oil, arranged inside another, smaller ceramic pan and cooked at 400º for about 20 minutes, removed from the oven and scattered with chopped lovage from Windfall Farms, placed on the plates on top of a bed of ‘arugulion‘ which had been dressed only with a little olive oil
• slices of a rich multigrain bread form Whole Foods
• the wine was an Italian (Campania) white, Falanghina Feudi di San Gregorio 2014
• the music was discs 5 and 6 of the multi-CD set, ‘Between Noise and Silence‘, collected works and tributes in memoriam to the composer Steven M. Miller

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