If you know me well, you know that I almost always leave a little food on my plate. Usually it’s just one last bite-size amount. I don’t know why I do this, I don’t try to leave things on my plate, I just stop when I’m done, and more often than not, I’m done before the plate is clean. Sometimes I theorize or joke about how that extra bit of food is my offering to Elijah, or perhaps to some other unknown visitor from the other world. There are certain members of my family and friends who have come to count on being able to eat those last few bites off my plate after they’ve already cleaned theirs. Perhaps I do it for them, even when dining alone. Yet I have found that there are some things that are able to over-ride my last-bite-leaving habit. Dessert, of course, often wins in this category- I’ve been known to lift many a dessert dish to my face to lick it clean of it’s last drops of goodness. But what really catches me off guard are the rare occasions when a dinner will actually lead me to lift my plate to my face for a good old-fashioned plate-licking. Plate-licking is best done at home, and probably best done alone.

Last night, home alone with my dinner plate full of veal scallopini covered in a marsala cream sauce and some pan-seared zucchini and tomatoes topped with fresh basil and Parmesan, I found myself overcome by a plate-licking urge. As my second helping of veal and vegetables started to diminish, I abandoned all manners and all silverware and went at my plate with my hands, tearing and popping everything into my mouth as fast as I could, slurping extra sauce off my fingers and then picking up the plate to lick it clean of the last bits of that sauce. Oh that sauce. Next I moved to the stovetop, where I used a spoon to scrape all the leftover sauce out of the skillet straight into my mouth. When it was done, I still wanted more. But of course, I didn’t write my recipe down. It was just one of those meals I whipped up in ten minutes, sleepy and hungry after a long day at the office.

I’d never actually cooked veal before, but when I found a small package of organic and humane veal scallopini from a local farm for sale for $3.00 at the Park Slope Food Coop over the weekend, I knew it was time to try. “Scallopini” simply refers to the cut of meat- it’s the Italian term for a thinly sliced round or oval pice of boneless meat. Veal scallopini  are also referred to as “veal scallops” or “veal cutlets” and often are sledged in flour and pan-fried. No flour-dredging for me, mine went straight into the hot cast iron skillet with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. I cooked them two at a time, and marveled at how quickly the thin slices of veal shrank inwards, decreasing with a quick dancing wiggle across the hot skillet until they were at least a third their original size. After about one minute on one side, I flipped them over for another 30 seconds on the other, then removed them from the heat. I deglazed the hot pan with the remaining contents (perhaps 3/4 cup?) of a bottle of sweet marsala wine, and let it boil down a bit before adding some heavy cream (was it maybe 1/2 cup?) and a squirt (let’s call that 1 Tbs) of tomato paste and whisking it over low heat until it was a nice thick sauce. The veal got tossed back into the pan to absorb the sauce, then served alongside some sliced zucchini and tomatoes which I quickly pan-fried in olive oil, garlic, a bit of fresh rosemary, and salt and then topped with Parmesan and fresh basil. That’s almost a recipe. Simple really. Give it a try!

I love a good Sunday Supper. This Sunday night there were eight of us ’round my table. I love a good full table. My dad was in town all weekend, and on Friday night we ate at No. 7 in Fort Greene where I tried swordfish for the first time in my life and fell in love with it. So Sunday night, after discovering that some “local” swordfish was on special at Whole Foods, I cooked swordfish for the first time and fell in love with it again. It was so simple to cook, and so satisfying to eat. Hardly fishy in flavor, it is meaty like a steak and yet very very light. For eight people I bought 3 1/4 pounds- I should have got 3 1/2 pounds though. I prepared it with a simple rub of lemon zest, sea salt, pepper, cumin, and brown sugar, and let it sit about half an hour before cooking. To cook the swordfish steaks all at once I needed two cast iron skillets. To cook: preheat oven to 400, then heat some olive oil in an oven proof skillet. Cook the swordfish in the skillet for about 4 minutes, then flip it over- the top should be nicely seared. Stick the skillet in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes until the swordfish is done. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of your swordfish steak, so start checking it at about 10 minutes because you really don’t want to overcook and dry out your fish.

I served my swordfish with a yogurt based sauce which I whipped up in the food processor: a handful of fresh dill, a handful of fresh parsley, the juice of a lemon, some olive oil, some Greek yogurt, and salt, pepper, and cumin to taste. I forgot to write down my proportions, but you can pretty much keep fiddling with it until it tastes the way you like.

With the fish I served a cold wild rice and lentil salad, a raw celeric (celery root) and carrot salad, and roasted eggplants and tomatoes. It was all very summery and fresh and full of cumin, mint, and lemon. (I just can’t seem to get enough of the combination of cumin, mint, and lemon recently!)

And just because I loved it so much last time (and because Jose was coming to dinner again),  I made my almond cake with almond crust for dessert.