One Local Summer: Week Four

A trip to our old neighborhood in Brooklyn enabled us to stock up on pasta from one of our favorite Italian specialty shops, Caputo's. Much of what they sell they make themselves, and for us it's always worth the trip back. As far as the crow flies, it's a mere 12 miles away. Of course those can be 12 very traffic-clogged miles. Fortunately this time around it was a breeze.


We also decided it was time to break out the pasture-fed steak we had been storing in our freezer. Simply Grazin' Farm, our local meat source, specializes in pasture-fed beef and though we've had some experience with it, we're still very green when it comes the preparation of this particular kind of beef. As opposed to the corn-fed, industrialized beef found in most grocery stores, pasture-fed beef is much leaner and not as marbled. That fat and marbling benefits the steak as it cooks, tenderizing it and giving it moisture. So when cooking a pasture-fed steak, you got to work fast and hot. The meat basically gets seared over high heat so that the flavor is preserved and the texture isn't compromised by over-cooking. I'm happy to report that the Mister did an expert job at the grill. This steak was truly one of the best I've ever tasted. . .
The pasta was tossed with local zucchini, spring onions and garlic scapes from our CSA and some home-grown herbs. The salad came courtesy of our CSA.