I chose many of the vegetables in my garden because they are things I enjoy and will actually use. I make a lot of Italian dishes, and as I learn the Italian language myself, I watch a lot of Italian cooking shows to enhance my comprehension. One of my favorites has been Cooking in Tuscany with Denni Bruci. He is the head chef at the Ristorante il Sale at Poggio ai Santi in San Vincenzo, Italy. His episode on breaded mullet fillets with mussels in white wine really piqued my interest. Here is the episode, now only found on YouTube. Skip to minute mark 7:16 for the instructional part.
I was so happy to be able to collect all the herbs I needed fresh from the garden.
I couldn't find any fresh mullet locally, so I substituted haddock fillets. I made my own Italian bread crumbs from stale Italian loaf mixed with my own herbs. As you could see, the TV episode gave no exact ingredient measurements, so I made the meal in parallel with the show playing on my phone and just using my own intuition for measurements. Here is the fish before it went into the oven.
I had also never cooked (or eaten) mussels before, so that was a bit of an adventure. It was all served with a small side salad and a glass of white wine (for the adults). I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but it was molto delizioso. The flavors of the lemon, orange, and basil all played in your mouth like a dance on a cool summer's night. My two young sons loved it as much as my wife and I did, and they were popping mussels into their mouths like they were big ocean popcorn that was going out of style. It was a great success, and a moment of pride for me personally.