My apologies for the extended absence.  I have no good excuse, just a combination of busy, lazy, traveling, and lethargy.  I still love cooking, eating, drinking wine, and traveling, so these next several posts will catch up with some highlights, beginning with tonight’s solo dinner.  I’ve been collecting a variety of outstanding ingredients recently, and I wanted to put together a meal with some of the best.  It could not be more international.

The first unusual ingredient is Callaloo (or Calaloo).  This is both an dish and a vegetable green plant, common in the Caribbean.  I first encountered it at the Union Square Greenmarket in New York several years ago, and this week I found a great package of fresh greens at Russo’s.  At $2.49 per pound, it was irresistible.

Next I texted my friend, Jan, who first told me about this vegetable.  His girlfriend is from Jamaica, Jan is from Rome, so his recipe has some of the best of both cultures.  He suggested sautéeing the greens with onions, garlic, olive oil, and tomatoes.  After consulting the web where I found a similar recipe with more Caribbean overtones, I followed Jan’s advice, adding only 1/2 of a jalapeño pepper.  Perfetto!

Next, I still had some dried Santorini Fava beans (actually a kind of split yellow peas) from last Spring, so I made a pot of those for a side dish.  Finally, I have recently been feeling the need for small amounts of seafood, so I took a half pound swordfish steak, sliced in horizontally, and then pan-grilled the steaks, adding fresh lemon juice and Spanish capers.

Here is the dinner plate:

To add to this culinary Trifecta — Calllaloo (Jamaica), Swordfish (Sicily), Favas (Greece) — I decide the wine match naturally had to be Corsican.  I selected the remaining contents in a bottle of 2014 Domaine Petroni rosé, left over from a dinner recently.  Absolutely stunning.  More backwards history is coming soon.