Flounder La Bella Fortuna

I miss Art Bloom. It sneaks up on me sometimes. I used to go and visit him regularly, and I was remembering recently how a friend and I once made the long drive from Bard to P-Town, just to watch the Academy Awards with Art. He was delighted that we had come to see him, and made his standard "special occasion" meal for us; which always took just as long to prepare as it did to eat -- probably 8 hours from shopping to dishes. The courses were always pretty much the same: some variation on steamed mussels, broiled bluefish, lobster and corn, maybe a salad; and vanilla ice cream for dessert. There was lots of wine and bourbon, of course, to go with all that good local seafood.

I remember every detail of the room looking over the bay. The way the light changed from season to season; how it felt to lie on my back and read with Fire sleeping on my chest, and the sound of distant foghorns and the tide coming in. Art and I would talk about Niall and Scott and Beverly; about music and movies and books and relationships. We had adopted each other as family, and those memories of visits to the kibbutz before Art got sick are very precious.

Art's special occasion bluefish came from Howard Mitcham's Provincetown Seafood Cookbook - still one of my all-time favorites. Mitcham, a wild man in the venerable P-Town tradition of brilliant and insane kitchen innovators, was still around when I was a kid, and my parents once took me to the restaurant where he did a very brief professional stint, to eat the Haddock Almondine that he had made famous.

I bought some flounder the other night, and enjoyed a little riff on Art's fish, with some updates of my own. The traditional recipe as I remember it, involved squeezing a lemon over a piece of bluefish or halibut, seasoning it with salt and pepper, and then spreading mayonnaise over the fish before broiling, about which Mitcham says:

"Now listen: when I say fresh homemade mayonnaise I mean exactly that. If you try to squeeze by with that cheap commercial mayonnaise then you will have defiled a fine fish who sacrificed his life for your enjoyment."

I seasoned our cod fillet with sumac and pimenton, salt and pepper, squeezed a lemon over it, let it sit while I preheated the broiler and then spread a little mayonnaise and dijon mustard mixture over the fish before broiling. Bill was completely knocked out by the sweet, fresh flounder and it disappeared in a flash. Simple and delicious.

flounder filets
salt
pepper
sumac
pimenton
dijon mustard
mayonnaise
lemon
chopped parsley for garnish

Restaurant-ish Pasta

More pasta. Its not all we're eating...really! I just can't find time to blog lately. I'll get around to writing up the fragrant keema mattar, velvety chocolate bread pudding, pickled beets, pineapple zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting and fabulous lemon chicken sometime soon, but for right now, with my preliminary literature review due at 9am and a long night of blurry-eyed proofreading ahead, I will just note that tonight's pasta was spectacular, if I do say so myself. Layers of flavor, good balance and pretty to look at. Bill ate himself into a food coma and passed out on the couch, indicating that perhaps this dish is a little too "restaurant-ish" for every day usage.

3 cloves garlic
1 scallion
6 sun dried tomatoes
hefty glug of white wine
juice of one lemon
olive oil
spoonful of chicken fat
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 T pesto
large handful of shrimp, sheeled and deveined
red pepper flakes
handful frozen peas
2 T pesto
copious amount of chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
linguini
pesto bread crumbs

Linguini a la Campagnola

I used to live down the block from a little neighborhood Italian restaurant where they make this dish: a fantastically savory pasta in garlic and oil with sun dried tomatoes, perfectly sauteed broccoli and a hunk of broiled goat cheese to swirl into the mix.

I made a double batch, thinking we'd eat the leftover portion for lunch the next day, but BT went back for fourths, until finally all that remained was an empty pan. Instructions to follow.

oil
scallions
broccoli
sundried tomatoes
garlic
parsley
goat cheese
salt and pepper

linguini

Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Ice Cream

Cook the eggs or don't cook the eggs - that part's entirely up to you. But make this ice cream. Make it without any further delay.
This is my ideal strawberry ice cream, exactly as is.
(The only element I might play around with in the future is maybe mixing everything in the blender for easier pouring and fewer bowls to wash.)

1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped
juice of half a lemon
1/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine strawberries, lemon juice, and 1/4 cup sugar in a mixing bowl, and set aside to macerate in the fridge for 1 hour. In a large mixing bowl beat eggs until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add 3/4 cups sugar, mixing well. Stir in milk and vanilla and mix well. Mash strawberries to a puree. Add the strawberry puree to the custard and mix well. Gently stir in whipping cream just until combined. Pour into a chilled ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Rotelli, Asparagus and Peas with Saffron Cream

Unable to leave well enough alone, I made a number of strategic changes to (an already perfectly good) recipe from Deborah Madison's The Greens Cookbook. (Not using any saffron in the saffron cream, for one thing...!)

Madison writes: "The peas are small and fresh, the asparagus, pencil thin. The fragrant saffron-flavored cream makes this pasta filling and substantial. This is a rather special dish, fine for a company dinner." I most wholeheartedly agree.

4 - 6 ounces fresh pasta (tagliatelle or wide fettuccine would be ideal.
1/2 bunch asparagus
1 cup green peas
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
1 tablespoon butter
2 scallions finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup heavy cream
Salt, to taste
1 cup parsley, roughly chopped
1 thin strip lemon peel; very thinly slivered
Parmesan cheese
Pepper

Bring a large pot of water to boil.
Melt the butter in a wide saute pan, and gently cook the shallots for several minutes, or until they are soft. Add the cream and the saffron infusion, bring to a boil, reduce slightly, and season with salt. When the pasta water is boiling, add salt, and cook the asparagus, and then the peas, in the boiling water. Scoop them out when they are done and add them to the cream. Next cook the pasta; when it is done, add it to the cream, turning it over several times with a pair of tongs to coat it with the sauce. Add the chervil leaves and the lemon peel, and serve on warm plates with grated Parmesan and freshly ground pepper.

Serves 2

Linguine a la Vongole

Not much of a recipe to record, but damn if this wasn't extra special good...
1/3 - 1/2 lb linguine
1 sundried tomato chicken sausage, sliced lengthwise and then horizontally into 1/2 inch slices
4 plum tomatoes, quartered
3 garlic cloves, sliced thin
12 littleneck clams, cleaned
generous pinch crushed red pepper
generous glug of white wine
handful chopped fresh oregano or basil
handful chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons pesto
salt, to taste
handful chopped fresh spinach

Spaghetti al Burro e Formaggio

This is really an amalgam of two comfort dishes from the Italian restaurants I worked at a million years ago when I was still cooking for pay. At Ciro and Sal's the pasta al burro e formaggio is pure solace: a whiff of garlic, handfuls of freshly grated cheese and lots of chopped parley to brighten the whole thing up. At Carmine's the lemon butter sauce is also a favorite of mine -- the flavors given extra depth and complexity with the addition of white wine and chicken stock and basil. So here, then, is Ciro and Carmine's love child, all grown up: a little lighter and more modern, with the combined wisdom of north and south. (Bill went back for third helpings. How bad could it be?)

1/2 pound whole wheat spaghetti
4 tablespoons of butter
1 clove garlic, finely minced (or more to taste)
1 hearty glug of white wine
1 hearty glug of chicken stock
1 small zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and then crosswise into thin half moons
2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach (or substitute 1/2 fresh basil, if you have it)
1/2 cup fresh parley, chopped
freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
salt and pepper to taste