Clams and sausage

Eastside Road, January 21, 2017—

FROM THE TOO READILY maligned Martha Stewart, by way of her magazine, another fine meal, a "pan roast" involving clams, sweet Italian sausage, fennel, leek, potatoes, tarragon, and Pernod.

We'd been in Berkeley the day before, and we try not to visit that town without dropping in at Monterey Fish, whose provender we've always trusted implicitly. Cook bought a couple of pounds of clams there, and they rode home on ice, happy, as they say, as clams.

This was a remarkable dish, beautifully integrated in flavor and textures, bound by the Pernod, deepened by the tarragon. We ate it all up, then went on to the greeen salad, and the tangerines…

Rouge, Var, La Ferme Julien, 2015

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017