dinner, 3/7/11

After only a couple of outings, we’ve already come to think of this simple, quick technique for small fillets (here winter flounder, locally caught) as the holy grail of fish recipes:  A way to let the taste of fresh, mild-flavored wild-caught fish shine, with a minimum of distractions.  Last night it was especially superb, not least because the fish had probably been in the sea only the day before.

• large-diameter ribbed tubular pasta, “Gigantoni,” (Setaro, from Buon Italia), combined with a simple cooked tomato sauce using canned San Marzano tomatoes, finished with basil;  served with spelt bread from Eataly
• wine:  Italian, Cà di Pian Barbera D’Asti D.O.C. 2006, from La Spinetta
• small flounder fillets from from Riverhead-based PE & DD Seafood in the Union Square Greenmarket, dried and then sprinkled with white wine vinegar and some salt, lightly-floured, sauteed in a little oil, removed from the pan, to which butter and lemon juice were then added, scraped together, gently warmed, and sprinkled with chopped parsley; accompanied by Japanese mustard greens (frisée-like Mizuna) from Lani’s Farm, also in the Greenmarket, which were wilted in a pan with oil which had first heated some chopped shallots, then finished with a bit of fresh oil
• cheese:   an especially sweet slice of “Rupert,” an artisanal cow’s milk form from the Greenmarket stall of Vermont’s Consider Bardwell Farm (the maker describes it as “An aged, raw Jersey cow milk cheese inspired by great European Alpine cheeses like Gruyère and Comté.”);  accompanied by thin slices of spelt bread
• wine:  Spanish, Naia 2008 Rueda (Verdejo) by Jorge Ordonez, from 67 Wine