I had decided early in the day on Sunday that I would prefer cooking a dinner with meat that night to one with pasta, since I had a good supply of both vegetables – and small, or micro vegetables as well – since more of them could be incorporated in, as it turned out, a pork entrée, than in any pasta.

Also, the freezer had grown almost full, which was going to make it hard to bring home something interesting that I might find at the market.

Another note about the dinner: Unusual for a meal at our table, there was not a single garlic clove or spicy chili. It was still eminently delicious.

• two 8-ounce boneless pork chops from Walter and Shannon of Shannon Brook Farm in the Finger Lakes, thoroughly dried, seasoned with salt, pepper, and a large pinch of light gold dried habanada pepper, seared quickly in a heavy enameled cast-iron pan before half of an organic Chelsea Whole Foods Market lemon was squeezed over them then left in the pan, which was then placed in a 400º oven for about 13 or 14 minutes (flipped halfway through and the lemon squeezed over them once again), removed from the oven, arranged on the plates, sprinkled with the chopped stems and leaves of 2 stalks of (pre-spring) baby celery from Windfall Farms, the rich pan juices poured over the top
• just under a pound of small, really wonderful, sweet Natasha potatoes from Phillips Farms,  scrubbed, boiled unpeeled in generously-salted water until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried in the still-warm large vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed with a little Trader Joe’s Italian Reserve extra virgin olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and garnished with micro chervil from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• a couple handfuls of beautiful chicory rosettes from Campo Rosso Farm that had popped up from last fall’s plants, washed, drained, dried, each halved – or quartered, if larger, tossed in a large bowl with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and a number of thyme branches from Chelsea Whole Foods, then arranged inside a large well seasoned Pampered Chef oven pan, without touching, roasted at 400º for about 10 minutes [I have to admit that I went a little overlong this time, but a bit crispy is good too, when it comes to chicory], removed from the oven and allowed to cool just a little before they were drizzled with a very small amount of balsamic vinegar
• the wine, a perfect pairing, was a really terrific unfiltered, unfined pinot noir, a French (Loire) red, Marie and Vincent Tricot’s ‘Les 3 Bonhommes’ 2016, from Copake Wine Works (I can’t say enough about the experience)
• the music was the contemporary Spanish composer Alberto Posadas’ ‘Poetics of the Gaze’, with Nacho de Paz conducting Klangforum Wien (a great listening)

The pasta incorporated water buffalo milk, and the wine that accompanied it was from the part of Italy associated most closely with bufala, the Maremma region of Tuscany.

Okay, maybe that’s not really relevant or important, but we like to think about these things, and both pasta and wine were delcious.

The recipe I used was inspired by the one on this site, but I shifted things around a bit.

• one ‘yellow shallot’ from Norwich Meadows Farm and one section of a scallion from Phillips Farms, both sliced, heated inside a large antique  high-sided copper pot until softened, a pinch of a crumbled lighter-orange-colored dried habanada pepper purchased fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm added, the heat turned up high and 3 ounces of chopped oyster mushrooms from the Bulich Mushroom Company stall in the Union Square Greenmarket tossed in and stirred for 3 to 5 minutes or so, or until their moisture had evaporated or been added to the pan (this time I had to add a little butter to keep the alliums from burning, half of a one-pound package of New York pasta, Sfoglini‘s spaccatelli (local organic durum semolina and organic hard red wheat flour, Riverine Ranch water buffalo milk, local water), from the buffalo farmers’ stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, cooked until barely al dente (6 minutes on this night), added to the pot along with most of a cup reserved pasta water and at least a third of a cup of grated 24-month-old Parmigiano Reggiano from the Chelsea  Whole Foods Market, the mix stirred for a couple of minutes over a medium-high flame until the liquid had thickened into a saucy glaze that coated the pasta, a small handful of Gaeta olives form Buon Italia and 8 or so fresh sage leaves from whole Foods added near the end, the pasta arranged in shallow bowls, some good Trader Joe’s Italian Reserve extra virgin olive oil drizzled around the edges, the pasta garnished with some micro purple radish from Windfall Farms
• the wine was an Italian (Tuscany) red, Sangiovese Maremma Toscana D.O.C., from our local wine store, Philippe Wines
• the music was a real treat: a recording of Dominick Argento’s delightful one-act opera, ‘Postcard From Morocco’, Philip Brunelle conducting the Minnesota Opera Orchestra and soloists Barbara Brandt, Vern Sutton, Barry Busse, Michael Forman, Janis Hardy, Yale Marshall, and Serita Roche Argento (Argento died this past Wednesday at 91)

I love this pasta.

It’s a very serious color, whether behind the cellophane window of the box as a very sophisticated dark grey, on the counter, where it lightens somewhat, or in the pasta bowl, where it looks more olive. But that’s only the start. The flavor is seductive, subtle yet pretty intense; if I had to describe it, I’d say nutty, grassy, and with a bit of the taste of green olive, although the last may be a function of what I see in the color. So how can I love the color of green olives, or even artichokes, but prefer to it when I’m working with sorrel?

• eight ounces from a box of Sfoglini hemp reginetti, boiled until just before it would have reached the point when it was al dente (that was about 10 minutes last night), drained and tossed into a large antique high-sided copper pot in which one sliced ‘yellow shallot’ from Norwich Meadows Farm and one sliced section of a scallion from Phillips Farms had first been allowed to soften in a little olive, the pasta stirred, with the addition of cut up pieces of larger sections of several celery stalks from Phillips Farms that had been rolled in olive oil, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch of a lighter orange-colored dried habanada  pepper before they were pan grilled long enough to  acquire grill marks and soften, the pasta mix stirred, along with almost a cup of reserved pasta water, over a pretty high flame until the liquid had emulsified, a handful or oil-cured Moroccan-type (there was no identification in the store) black olives that came already mixed with small red chili peppers, also from Whole Foods tossed in, the reginetti and its sauce served in shallow bowls, a handful of pine nuts from Buon Italia, toasted, and some chopped leaves and smaller stems from the celery stalks tossed on top, a bit of olive oil drizzled around the edges
• the wine was an Italian (Campania) red, Mastroberardino Aglianico Campania Mastro 2015 from our neighborhood shop, Philippe Wines
• the music was the album, ‘En Hollande’, by the contemporary Dutch composer Leo Samama

[the images of the dried pasta are from the Sfoglini site itself]

Meat and potatoes. And greens.

• two incredibly delicious sirloin cap steaks (otherwise called ‘culotte’ here, ‘coulotte’ in France, ‘picanha’ in Brazil, or “the part where the cow was poked by ranchers“), from Sun Fed Beef/Maple Avenue Farms in their stall at the Union Square Greenmarket, brought to room temperature, seasoned on all sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, seared over a medium-high flame for less than a minute on the fat-covered side [this time, inexplicably, each had 2 fat-covered sides] inside an oval enameled heavy cast iron pan, the open sides cooked for 3 or 4 minutes each, removed from the pan at the moment they had become perfectly medium-rare, arranged on 2 warm plates, drizzled with juice from a local lemon grown by Fantastic Gardens of New Jersey, sprinkled with chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, a little olive oil poured over the top
• about a pound of red thumb fingerling potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, halved lengthwise, tossed with a little olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of crushed light-colored home-dried habanada pepper (originally purchased fresh from Norwich Meadows), 6 or 7 medium-size rocambole garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm (unpeeled, to keep them from burning), the potatoes roasted cut-side down inside a 375º oven on a large very well-seasoned Pampered Chef ceramic pan for about 20 or 25 minutes, arranged on the plates and garnished with red micro chard from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• one bunch of collard greens from Lani’s Farm, the stems removed, washed 3 times, drained (some of the water retained and held aside to be added, as necessary, while the greens cooked), chopped into smaller pieces, braised gently until softened/wilted inside a large, antique copper pot in which 2 halved cloves of ‘music’ garlic/aka ‘strong neck’ garlic from Windfall Farms had been heated until they had softened, seasoned with salt and black pepper, finished with a small drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a surprisingly light, but very sophisticated zinfandel, a California (Mendocino County) red, Les Lunes Venturi Vineyard Zinfandel 2015, from Copake Wine Works
• the music was a 2011 recording of Wagner’s 1862-1867 comic music drama, ‘Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg’, Marek Janowski conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Chorus