There was pasta, but it was the only element in this dish that had to be cooked; essentially, it was all but a salad.

Interestingly, there was no salt (other than that in the pasta cooking water) or pepper. I’ve written about its simplicity before.

• once the water for boiling 8 ounces of Setaro spaghetti chitarra from Buon Italia was heating inside a large stainless pasta pot, 4 heirloom tomatoes from Eckerton Hill Farm (approximately one pound) were cut into rough chunks, tossed in a large bowl with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 3 lightly-crushed garlic cloves from from Norwich Meadows Farm, part of a dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, part of a golden dried habanada pepper, about half of a cup of torn basil from Alewife Farm, then stirred, allowed to sit until the spaghetti itself was ready, cooked al dente, and tossed into and mixed with the tomatoes, the mix placed in shallow bowls, a little olive oil poured around the edges of the pasta, sprinkled on top with homemade bread crumbs browned earlier in a little olive oil, finished topped with chopped dill flowers from Eckerton Hill Farm, and nasturtium flower petals from Windfall Farms
• the wine was an Italian (Veneto) sparkling, Milleri Millesimato Prosecco 2015, a gift from friends
• the music was the third and final act of Handel’s ‘Radamisto’, begun during dinner the night before