Joint effort

Corte della Pazienza, Venice, June 5, 2011—

BACK IN OUR TEMPORARY home, after a three-day holiday in Friuli, we decided it was time for a home-cooked meal. I peeled and cut up a number of potatoes and cooked them slowly in olive oil, salted of course, along with a few unpeeled garlic cloves, and a couple of onions which I'd peeled, tipped, and quartered, leaving the root end intact so they wouldn't fall apart.

Lindsey cut up a head of cauliflower and steamed it in salted water with a little olive oil, and I made the vinaigrette for the green salad, using lemon instead of vinegar. I quickly seared three scalloppini of vitelloni — the nearest equivalent I can think of in English is "baby beef," which we used to eat when I was a kid, but which I haven't seen or heard of since.

A simple meal, almost colorless. But tasty and easy.

Bianco Costaiolo, Frassine, nv (not very good, but cheap)