Sebastian moved to Spain in September, hence the tear-stained scallops a couple of months back. I wasn’t ready to leave my hometown—the center of the universe—New York City, and stayed a while longer to bask in the company of friends and family, trying to make my peace with a trans-Atlantic move.

I’ve been meaning to tell you (though not sure quite how to weave it into the conversation), but I am in Barcelona too, rather open-endedly…and love is in the details. In the morning Sebastian squeezes Valencia oranges for fresh juice and makes pan con tomate for breakfast. (For a tomato lover, the mere fact of eating a ripe tomato in February elicits joy.)

Barcelona—capital of Catalonia, mecca of Gaudí’s oeuvre, and a food fanatic’s paradise—is where I now live. Our grand old apartment boasts magnificent molded ceilings, an antique safe, a bizarre homage to Miró as a mural on one wall, and a persistent smell that disappears for days and then reappears, suddenly and sinister.

We’ve spent these first days gathering the bare essentials. On Saturday in Encants at the flea market, we found three antique sterling forks, a pink lusterware soup terrine and matching bowl and an antique gilt mirror. There is humor and symmetry in this last item, since we never had a full-length mirror in the carriage house; here we have no furniture but can look at ourselves as we sit on the traditional Catalan tiled floor.

On Tuesday Sebastian bought us a refrigerator, oven, and a new batterie de cuisine and with great joy I went to the Boqueria—possibly the greatest market in the world—to pick up what I needed for a very simple meal. For dinner I made veal piccata with caramelized carrots and a mesclun salad—recipes, if you can glorify them by calling them that, ingrained in me by my mother, staples of her repertoire for streamlined suppers that sustained me as a kid after a track meet or origami class.

Our first meal at home was not in the least bit Spanish, and I look forward to the more elaborate and experimental meals that will come forth from my new kitchen in Barcelona. However, on that first night, sitting on the living room tiled floor with Sebastian, surrounded by the shocking space of our new apartment in a city I hardly know, a meal as familiar as a nursery rhyme made the drafts and whiffs of our new apartment feel much more like home.

Veal Picatta for Two

Ask your butcher for four veal scaloppines 1/3 to 1/4 inch thick and pound them if you like them thinner. Pour some flour into a shallow bowl and mix in some sea salt and fresh pepper. Dredge the veal slices in the mixture, patting them over the bowl to remove excess. The veal0 should be coated but not caked. In a frying pan, heat 1.5 tablespoons of butter until it starts to froth. Place the scaloppines in the pan so that they do not overlap, and season with more salt and pepper. Let the veal cook for about two minutes, or until the down-facing side has started to brown in places, then flip the slices. Season the second side. After a minute, squeeze the juice of half a lemon onto the slices mixing it with the melted butter. Place the veal slices on plates, two per person. Let the butter and lemon continue to cook over high heat, adding a tablespoon of water if there is not much liquid remaining. Garnish the veal with roughly chopped flat leaf parsley and drizzle the cooking liquid over the veal.

Caramelized Carrots

With a vegetable brush scrub and/or peal a bunch of carrots and remove the greens at your discretion (if the carrots are nice ones, I scrub them but don’t peel them and like to leave a little green top). Cut your carrots so that the pieces are uniform in size and will cook at the same rate (if you are lucky enough to have those slender youthful carrots that aren’t more than seven inches long, slice them once lengthwise and nothing more. Lay the carrots at the bottom of a pan so that they are lying down in a couple of layers. Add cold water to cover them half way up and a tablespoon of butter. Over high heat cook the carrots uncovered, rolling them around every few minutes. Add salt and pepper and let them continue to cook until the water has evaporated and the butter browns (about ten minutes). Continue to stir/shake the carrots until they are fork tender and slightly browned by the butter.

Our Vinaigrette

In a bowl mix 1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 2 teaspoons anchovy paste, a pinch of sea salt, fresh pepper, two teaspoons Jerez vinegar, and six tablespoons olive oil. Add the ingredients in that order and whisk after adding each tablespoon of oil. Finish with a few drops of lemon juice and pour over clean lettuces.

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Tags: barcelona, boqueria, carrots, Sebastian, Spain, veal, vinaigrette