Rustic dining

Orr Springs Road, September 7, 2011—

WE'RE ON A NON-technology midweek weekend, eating al fresco. (I write this, as I sometimes must, a day or two later.) Our friends have a fully equipped cabin ten miles out of Ukiah, in northern California's Mendocino county. Dinner: a marvelous grilled steak, these fabulous Nardello peppers, and corn on the cob — summer at its sweetest.

We first heard about these peppers last Saturday, at the Farm market in Healdsburg, when our friend Joey insisted we buy a few. They're wonderfully tasty, and so easy to cook: you just rinse them off, dry them, and throw them into a very hot black iron skillet, then sprinkle a little olive oil on them and cook them until they begin to blacken. Sea salt is all they need.

Sauvignon blanc, Lambert Bridge Bevill Vineyard (Dry Creek Valley), 2009 (about as good as Dry Creek SB gets, and that's SB at its California best); Cabernet Sauvignon, Husch La Ribera Vineyard, 2005(!), smooth, authentic, to savor