By February. Valentine's Day in the new house. The kitchen is under construction — cabinets removed, new ones on order, a temporary setup of a card table and a microwave and the one working burner. I made dinner on the one burner: spaghetti aglio e olio, four ingredients, because you don't need a kitchen to cook well. You need a burner and a will.
Megan and I ate spaghetti in the living room (the dining room is full of kitchen demo debris) by candlelight (romantic ambiance masking the fact that the dining room light fixture hasn't been installed yet). She wore the dress from our first Valentine's Day dinner at the fancy restaurant. I wore a clean shirt. We are not fancy people in a not-fancy house eating spaghetti on a card table and it was the most romantic evening of our lives because it was ours. Everything in this house is ours. Even the mystery hole in the backyard.
She gave me a gift: a framed photo of the apartment kitchen. Our old kitchen. The tiny one. She'd taken it on the last day, when everything was packed, when the counters were empty and the walls were bare. "So you never forget where you started," she said. I hung it in the new kitchen, between the construction dust and the missing cabinets. The old kitchen. The new kitchen. The bridge between them.
We're still trying. Five months since we started again. The hope is steady. Not frantic. Not desperate. Steady. Like the pilot light that burns and burns and doesn't go out. Like the soup that simmers. Like the dough that rises. Everything in its own time.
The spaghetti was the main event, but we needed something to eat while the pasta water came to a boil on that one working burner — something that required no heat, no counter space, and no functioning kitchen. These Cherry Tomato Bites were exactly that: ten minutes, a cutting board balanced on the card table, and ingredients that feel like they belong in the same Italian-leaning spirit as the aglio e olio. We ate them standing in the living room, candlelight flickering, the demo debris just out of frame, and they tasted like something we’d order at a restaurant. That’s the thing about cooking in constraints — you stop fussing and start tasting.
Cherry Tomato Bites
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 10 min | Servings: 2 (about 20 bites)
Ingredients
- 20 large cherry tomatoes
- 4 oz fresh whole-milk mozzarella, cut into small cubes
- 20 fresh basil leaves, small or torn to fit
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic glaze
- 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Hollow the tomatoes. Slice the top off each cherry tomato and use a small spoon or your fingertip to gently scoop out the seeds and pulp. Pat the inside dry with a paper towel.
- Fill. Tuck one small cube of fresh mozzarella and one basil leaf (folded if needed) into each hollowed tomato. Press gently so they sit snugly.
- Arrange and dress. Place the filled tomatoes on a serving plate or board. Drizzle evenly with olive oil and balsamic glaze.
- Season and serve. Finish with flaky sea salt and cracked black pepper. Serve immediately at room temperature.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 210 | Protein: 9g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 8g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 280mg