Tomato and Goat Cheese Toast

Valentine's Day. Our tradition: tomato soup, grilled cheese, no flowers from Ecuador. Helen's favorite meal, the same meal we've had on February 14th since 1981, the year I made it for her because the restaurants were full and I had tomatoes and cheese and the stubborn conviction that home-cooked is better than anything with a reservation. Thirty-seven Valentine's Days later, the conviction holds. The soup holds. The marriage holds. All three are connected.

The tomato soup: our canned tomatoes from August, cooked with onion and garlic and a touch of cream, blended smooth. The grilled cheese: good bread, sharp cheddar, butter on the outside, pressed on the griddle until golden. You dip the sandwich in the soup. You eat. You look across the table at the person you've loved for four decades and you don't say anything fancy because fancy was never our language. Our language is: I made you soup. Sit down. Eat.

I also made chocolate pudding — the from-scratch kind, cocoa and sugar and cornstarch stirred on the stovetop until it thickens. Helen ate it with a spoon she licked clean when she thought I wasn't looking. I was looking. I'm always looking. Thirty-eight years of marriage and I'm still looking, and the woman licking a pudding spoon in a Vermont kitchen on a Tuesday night in February is still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and I've seen Lake Champlain at sunrise and the maples in October and a newborn grandchild in my arms, and she's still the most beautiful thing. Don't tell her I said that. She'll say I'm going soft.

The blog post this week was the two-year anniversary reflection. I wrote about starting as a reluctant retiree and becoming — what? A writer? A cooking teacher? A man who talks to strangers about beans? I don't know what to call it. Helen calls it "your thing." David calls it "Dad's blog." Sarah calls it "the reason people email me to say my father's baked beans changed their life." The readers call it — well, they call it by their own names. "The blog that taught me to make soup." "The thing I read when I miss my wife's cooking." "The old man in Vermont." I'll take any of those. I'll take all of them. They're all true.

Two years. Tomato soup. Grilled cheese. Chocolate pudding. A woman who licks spoons. A blog that matters to the people it reaches. Happy Valentine's Day. Happy anniversary. Happy everything.

So here’s the recipe I want to leave you with this week — not the soup, not the grilled cheese, not even the pudding, but something that lives right in the middle of all three. Tomato and goat cheese toast. It’s got the tomatoes, it’s got the cheese, it’s got the good bread with butter, and it takes about fifteen minutes to make for the person sitting across the table from you. The person you’ve been making dinner for since 1981, or since last Tuesday, or since whenever you decided that cooking for someone is its own kind of love letter.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 thick slices of rustic bread (sourdough or country loaf)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved (or 2 medium ripe tomatoes, sliced)
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
1 clove garlic, peeled and halved
1 tablespoon fresh basil, torn (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions

Roast the tomatoes. Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss cherry tomato halves with olive oil, salt, and pepper on a small baking sheet. Roast for 10 minutes until they soften and begin to blister at the edges.
Toast the bread. While the tomatoes roast, butter both sides of each bread slice. Place in a skillet over medium heat and toast until golden on each side, about 2 minutes per side. Remove from heat and rub one side of each slice with the cut garlic clove.
Assemble. Spread crumbled goat cheese generously over the garlic-rubbed side of each toast. Spoon the roasted tomatoes on top, pressing them gently into the cheese.
Finish. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar, scatter the torn basil over the top, and add red pepper flakes if you like a little heat. Serve warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Tomato and Goat Cheese Toast — Our Valentine’s Day Table, Thirty-Seven Years Running