Lobster and lamb and fresh tuna — oh my! What a delicious and varied week.

2 pound suckers from Frank’s Seafood Market. Delicious!

Critters before the plunge …

Lobster was the star of the show this week, but we also devoured the fresh fig and lamb skewers with a couple of Greek side dishes …

Grilled Eggplant & Peppers

Greek Chopped Salad

And of course, fresh ahi with Livornese sauce is one of our favorites:

Livornese Sauce

What does one do with a lovely bottle of Burgundy? Create a French meal to help savor every last delightful drop. I chose a very simple menu that would allow the wine to shine.

St. Nectaire

And what better way to kick off a French meal (and end it for that matter — we did both) than with a wedge of simple French cheese? I layered slices of the cheese over freshly grilled peach halves and draped everything in prosciutto. Not exactly textbook French, but still a delightful start to a meal.

Mushrooms ready for the grill

Julia Child’s Pork Tenderloin with Grilled Marinated Mushrooms

I simply could not restrain myself in the face of all the gorgeous summer fruit at the Farmer’s Market. The peaches, the plums, the nectarines, the apricots — they have all been unbelievably juicy and sweet this season.

Perfect Peach

I turned half of my haul into fruit-loaded refrigerator jam spiked with cinnamon-basil, pineapple-sage and vanilla.

Ready to magically turn into jam

Finished product

Our Supper Club kicked of its 3rd year running with a regional, Italian-themed dinner on Saturday evening.  I spent the day making one of my favorite (and rather unusual) dishes: vitello tonnato from the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. Oh how I love this dish! I hate to tell people what it is — veal in tuna sauce — as it sounds very weird to the American ear and dining palate. Don’t let the description scare you, it’s divine.

First, a hunk o’ veal is braised slowly in white wine, herbs, chunks of onions and shredded, top-quality Italian tuna. Yep, braised in Italian tuna.

Veal submerged under onions

After the veal bath, the meat is then cooled and coated with a homemade, mayonnaise-based sauce. It tastes so decadent and rich, it’s hard to believe it isn’t filled with butter and cream. The sauce is simply comprised of egg yolks, olive oil, veal broth, caper juice, lemon juice and, yep, you guessed it, Italian tuna. The whole thing is whipped into oblivion and tastes just like summer. If you are even remotely adventurous in the food department, I urge you to try this dish.

Vitello Tonnato

This dish was also super easy to bring to the Supper Club dinner as it can be made ahead of time and there is no last-minute prep. The vitello tonnato was the first course in our multi-course Italian meal. The hosts kicked off the dinner with a platter of roasted eggplant and tomatoes with fresh, homemade bread. A fabulous, herb-crusted pork loin and pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil rounded out the meal. To finish? A spectacular tiramisu, of course. Once again, another successful Supper Club adventure.

This Indian pepper chicken is a staple in my house. And, it’s even easy enough to pull together on a weeknight. Bonus! If you enjoy Indian food, you will love this dish. It also makes the house smell lovely — all warm and spicy and exotic. Try it. You’ll like it.

The dish is fabulous to eat, but it certainly doesn’t photograph well, hence the absence of a picture. It looks appetizing in person, but translates into brown goop when photographed. Sort of like the eggplant pickle I made below. Which, however murky and weird it looks in the photo, was outstanding. It was so good, in fact, that I am planning additional Indian food for next week’s menu so we can enjoy the pickle again. Recipe to come.

Sweet & Spicy Eggplant Pickle