FAMILY MEAL: Spaghetti Marinara and Celery Parmesan Salad

I arrived to Sonoko’s house yesterday morning while she was out running errands. When I walked in, I found a box on spaghetti and blanched, peeled tomatoes from Sonoko’s garden waiting on the counter. These tomatoes were the final harvest from her summer stalks and she had picked them that morning for our lunch. We worked for a few hours, and then Sonoko hinted that she’d be curious to see how I might prepare lunch using these classic Italian ingredients.

I put a pot of water on to boil, chopped up some garlic, added a generous slick of olive oil to a pan, and squeezed in some tomato paste. I let it fry with the garlic and a whole purple chili pepper, also from the garden. When the garlic was cooked but not brown, and the tomato paste had be fried for a bit, I turned off the heat and drizzled in my secret ingredient, 1 tablespoon of deep, viscous Tamari from Sonoko’s pantry. Once everything was stirred together, it was time to add the tomatoes. In they went, with a fat pinch of salt and even more olive oil. While that simmered down, I popped out to the garden for some basil, parsley, and a still-green Meyer lemon (super fragrant and just juicy enough to use!). I dropped a couple basil sprigs into the pan with the tomatoes and then grabbed a bunch of cold celery from the fridge. While I sliced the celery thin, and made a dressing of Meyer lemon zest, juice, garlic, and olive oil, I set a ceramic platter in the freezer to chill.

The tomato sauce was looking almost done— time to cook the pasta, finish the sauce, and plate the salad.

I put the celery on the cold plate and topped it with shaved Parmigiano, parsley leaves, and the simple dressing. Sonoko and Hannah set the table and grabbed the iced lemon-verbena tea (also from the garden) that Sonoko had made the night before.

Then with just a couple minutes left for the spaghetti, I dropped two fillets of rock fish, cut bitesized into the sauce. The fish poached in the rich sauce until just opaque, then in went the spaghetti, straight from the cooking water, and it was time for Family Meal.

Mmmm.

Kali Bush-Vineberg