The Red & The Black

Ceridwen prepared a supper for me and a small gathering of old friends and two of their small kids around the corner. I helped, and we had fun reading from their shelf of recipe books while things were cooking and people were making their ways to the table through the Friday rush hour.

After some brainstorming, the verdict was to make a black and red meal: Squid ink fettuccini with made-from-scratch tomato sauce, dark purple string beans that turn green when the steam hits them, grape tomatoes, and mussels (as fresh as is possible to get here, but not nearly as fresh as Ceridwen is used to).

Lior, who is just nine, asked her mother, "Did they kill the squid to get the ink for the pasta?" and her Mom replied, "No, they squeezed out the ink and threw the squid back in the water." Both were joking of course.

On the side were black mission figs, black olives, black grapes, and very dark chocolate. Just this once we decided to forego the truffles and the caviar on pumpernickel bread.

A tasty and convivial evening was had by all.