pasta fresca (This is good.)

Published: Sun, 09/07/25

** bowties * cheese * slowness * okee dokee joe **

(This is good.) pasta fresca (drawing of 2 pieces of bowtie pasta coated with a little bit of red and green sauce) / On Saturday morning I hiked with a few dozen adults and many children of all ages to the top of a little peak where we all sat on rocks and a musician sang his own songs about the life that's in the grass and the bird, and where the spirits live inside us, precisely, and I thought, well, this is about the best possible spiritual experience, being
surprised by these true words on a gentle morning among many families, trees, the needle-soft ground. / (adults and children sitting on the ground, man with guitar singing "in your heart there is a forest, through the forest walks your grandmother...", trees in the background, person in the foreground who could be carolyn

During the last song there was a very loud CRAAAAACKKK and the musician stopped playing ... and then started again.

Then there were many, many more — and now I'll call them shots — all up against each other, a dozen or more, their echoes interrupting one another. The musician stopped playing.

We — the adults in the audience and the musician, most of us from Minneapolis — looked at one another, each with our own particular blend of visceral fear and intentional calm. Faces insistently neutral as children asked about fireworks. Eyes searching the other faces, asking.

One man had lived a long time in those woods, and he talked very quietly and with pure, matter-of-fact lack of concern: Guns are allowed in the wilderness. There's a campsite down there. Sometimes people like to shoot just for fun. Target practice. My neighbors do it all the time.

Several dozen adults were quiet enough to hear this man's soft voice over the chatter of a few children. The musician finished his song, and we all walked back down the trail. / A lot of things feel urgent: gun control, for one, for godssake. Not to keep people from shooting at a rock at a campsite, necessarily, but to keep the most damaging weapons out of the hands of people bent on carrying out heartbreaking acts of violence. / Also urgent, paradoxically:
slowness, the kind that lets us see each other and connect and be together in this world in a way that holds each person, keeps all of us from harming and from harm. The kind of slowness that lets us soak up minutes with the people around us who will not be here forever, which is all of them. / It is obviously abrupt and trite to say that perfectly ripe, fresh-from-the-vine tomatoes will not be here forever either, but it's true. Taste them while you can.

Oval decorative frame housing an image of carolyn wearing a bowtie ... which could be a piece of pasta, or maybe a clerical collar? and a sleeveless black shirt. Looking more jowly than usual, and worried. Who knows what's going on here, honestly. It's a transition frame. / In peak tomato season, this is my go-to. I'd like to thank Moosewood for the process and the general idea. I'd also like to say to Moosewood, "HOW ABOUT 10X AS MUCH BASIL AND AN
UNLIMITED NUMBER OF TOMATOES?!" / Here's what you'll need for the sauce:

(drawings of ingredients) FRESH TOMATOES. At least 4 cups. Can't really have too many. BASIL LEAVES. 3-4 big handfuls. GARLIC. 1 clove. OLIVE OIL. 1 tablespoon. SALT & PEPPER. Pick your favorite amount.

Chop & set aside about 1 1/2 cups tomatoes and a big handful of basil. / (bowl of chopped tomatoes and basil) / Put all the other sauce ingredients in a food processor [chop the garlic clove first and quarter or halve the tomatoes.] Pulse until you have a consistent, chunky sauce. / Then enjoy cutting the mozzarella into a lot of little cubes. / After draining the pasta, put it back in the pot, and scatter the cheese cubes on top to let them warm gradually.
Don't stir them in yet. / Pour the sauce over the top, then the reserved tomatoes and basil. Toss everything together. / Slow down and eat it with your people.

I love it when you send This is good. to others who might like it. Thank you!

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