And Champagne of course.

The picture above was taken in the subdued light of the dining gallery, which I normally can’t trust to be bright enough for an unblurred image. It worked this time, but I didn’t trust it for a second shot, so I took a picture of the pasta while it was still on the kitchen counter (nearly photobombed by a very old twisted wire trivet I’ve had for almost 50 years that I brought with me from Rhode Island in 1985).

It was New Years Eve, one of my favorite holidays (made it through another year!), and one we usually prefer to celebrate quietly at home with a simple supper and a complex champagne, each as elegant as possible for their respective attributes.

This year it involved, truffles, a beautiful radicchio, and an Aube sparkling (Champagne, but a younger vignoble, located south of the Marne).

The first course would have involved sea food in some form, had I been able to find something special, but this year’s holidays fell on days unfriendly to the local Greenmarket suppliers, and I didn’t want to chance the crowds in the 2 retail stores where I could have found something.

Instead, I splurged in the very best prosciutto I could find, and it happened to boast a rich red which anticipated the color of a chicory that literally jumped out of the main course that would follow it.

• roughly 6 ounces of a 24 month prosciutto DOP Dall’Ava  D.O.K di San Daniele, of friuli, from Eataly Flatiron, drizzled with Frankies 457 Sicilian olive oil
• local Bowery arugula from Foragers Market, dressed with the same olive oil, a bit of juice from an Whole Foods Market organic lemon, Maldon salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
• a demi-baguette from Eataly I’d purchased just as it came out of the oven on 23rd Street
• the wine was an Italian (Campania) white, Casa d’Ambra Ischia Bianco 2017, from Garnet Wines

The main course just sort of came together, almost by itself, once I spotted the black truffle agnolotti at Eataly: Great butter, black pepper, yes, and a generous amount, plus a good Parmesan (best slivered), and then the torn leaves of 2 tiny gorgeous crimson very late season chicories, and a drizzle of fine olive oil

• thirteen ounces of black truffle agnolotti from the fresh pasta shop inside Eataly’s Flatiron (black truffle, porcini mushrooms, pecorino and romano cheeses), cooked very briefly, or until they had just popped to the surface of the water, drained and slipped into a large antique high-sided copper pot in which more than 3 tablespoons of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ had slowly been melted, arranged, half of it at a time, inside shallow bowls, finished by inserting leaves of 2 very small ‘heads’ of ‘Rosa di Campo Rosso’ radicchio (like the northern Italian tardivo) developed this year by Chris Field and Jessi Okamoto of Campo Rosso Farm, drizzled around the edges with a bit of Frankies 47 olive oil
• the wine was more of the Ischian white, and then some from the bottle of another Italian (and again a Campania) white, Benito Ferrara Greco di Tufo 2017, also from Garnet Wines

• the wine was a split of a French (Abe/Champagne) champagne, Pierre Gerbais, ‘Grains de Celles’ Extra Brut Réserve NV, from a producer in the Côte des Bars, a younger vignoble than those in the Marne, from Astor Wines

• the music throughout the evening, until midnight, was the final hours of live streaming of  the octonary WKCR Bachfest 2018 (at midnight, the live programmers let us down easily with another hour of Bach, and then ‘Jazz Til Dawn’ reminded me that I really loved cool jazz in the late 50s-early 60s (although we didn’t call it that then), and that I could go there again

it took almost an hour

We were hoping it would be less.

Well, a large amount of water has to come to a boil and then a sturdy artisanal pasta will take its own good time, and after that there’s a little swirling or stirring, and pretty soon it’s a pretty late supper.

Okay, it was late, even for us; it was nearly midnight.

But it was delicious, and probably both better and more comfy than any alternative we had after returning home close to 11 o’clock.  We came directly from Louise Fishman’s opening at the Philadelphia ICA, which had culminated a wonderful day trip to Philadelphia.

The recipe is from Mark Bitttman, ‘Minting A Pasta Dish For Summer‘. I’ve been saving it since 2003. He writes that the amount of the herb indicated, “..allows the mint to announce its presence’.  If you like mint as much as I do, I don’t think using more of it in this recipe would be a bad idea at all.

I halved all of the ingredients.

• eight ounces of artisanal pasta (here Setaro Nodi Marini from Buon Italia), after it had been cooked al dente in a large pot of water and drained, immediately turned into a warmed bowl and thoroughly mixed with 2 or 3 tablespoons of its cooking liquid, 2 tablespoons of ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘, about a fourth of a cup of chopped peppermint from Lani’s Farm, and about a fourth of a cup of Parmesan cheese from Whole Foods, grated, seasoned with salt an pepper to taste, divided into 2 shallow bowls, sprinkled with micro beets from Two Guys from Woodbridge (because I had a small amount already washed and dried), and also for the color), and served with additional cheese on the side
• the wine was an Italian (Sardinia) white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2014
• the music was from Q2, streaming (it was late, and we were too tired to remember the pieces)

It was the eve of the New Year, and we were stay-at-homes again, at least in part because we love the opportunity the holiday offers for enjoying simple dining pleasures (after all, the star of the show is the midnight hour itself).  I continue to think of this evening as very grownup, and yet pretty magical. that’s in spite of the fact that, purely as an astronomical phenomenon, it’s an invention, albeit an old one.  I also think that the food to accompany it, and there must be food if it’s a feast, should be elegant, even aesthetic, minimal, and suitable for the best champagne the pocket can support.

The meal this year was simple, and definitely an event, thanks to Eataly’s Luca Donofrio, above all to the kitchen skills of a good friend, and to the generosity of two others, and, at the very end, to the good counsel of the gentleman at Heathrow’s World Duty Free scotch kiosk, who pointed us in the right direction.

I know ‘simple’ may not seem a proper adjective for a meal of 6 courses, but there wasn’t actually that much food, even adding them all up, and the descriptions should be able to defend their spareness themselves.

• Spanish (Valencia) ‘Marcona’ almonds, ‘fritas‘, the gift of a friend
• eight ounces of spinach tagliolini from Eataly, cooked al dente, tossed in a warm bowl with softened, unsalted rich ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘, seasoned with Maldon salt and freshly-ground tellicherry pepper
• the wine up to this point was an Italian (Sardinia) white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2014

• two seafood sausages, the gift of a friend who is a master in his wonderful kitchen, pan grilled for a few minutes, accompanied by a brown butter caper sauce made by melting a third of a stick of Kerrygold butter in a skillet over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally, until the milk solids had turned brown, removed from the heat, the juice of about a third of one sweet (unidentified name) lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island whisked in, along with 4 or 5 teaspoons of salted capers (rinsed, drained, and dried), seasoned to taste with salt and butter, sprinkled at the last minute with 2 teaspoons of whole baby chive plants from Rogowski Farm, served with slices of a fairly robust bread, Balthazar’s ‘Potato Fendu’, from Whole Foods

• Shushan sheep milk cheese from 2-Corner Field Farm, served with thin toasts of the same Balthazar potato bread

• the wine with the seafood and cheese courses was a champagne, Ployez-Jacquemart Extra Quality Brut from Flatiron Wines & Spirits

• the sweet was a fantastic gingerbread pastry from Dominique Ansel Bakery, the gift of a friend

• mixed unshelled nuts from Whole Foods, cracked at the table
• the drink with the nuts was Talisker Dark Storm, from Heathrow duty free

• the music playlist for the entire evening is pretty extensive, beginning with Pier Francesco Cavalli’s ‘Calisto‘, extending through Caroline Shaw’s ‘Partita for 8 Voices’, and ending with John Luther Adams’ ‘Become Ocean’