Parsleyed Tomatoes with Pine Nuts (Page 587)

• Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2006 -- 9pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Fellow Chefs: Matty and Glen
• Dining Companions: Ana, Craig, and Jessie
• Recipe Rating: C

I picked this recipe because it sounded like it might be good -- it wasn't really though. Everyone agreed that tomatoes cooked this way (on the stovetop, without browning) are just unappealing. I realize that if you roasted the tomatoes (which does taste good) then they wouldn't have enough structural integrity to be stuffed. But maybe that's a sign that stuffed tomatoes isn't a good idea. As it was, this recipe took extremely good tomatoes and made them worse. They got grainy when they were cooked, and didn't gain any additional flavor. The parsley stuffing was fine, although it was too intensely parsley-flavored for some people. The pine nuts were good! I offended Matt by commenting that the dish was even visually unappealing -- in his defense, he did the best possible job styling this inherently not-so-cute dish. This recipe is not a keeper.

I am starting to get excited about my trip to Chicago. I am giving a topology seminar at Urbana-Champaign on Tuesday, but I am going to fly out to Chicago on Saturday and stay with Vigleik and Shihchi for the weekend! It will be so good to see them, and I am bringing The Book, so hopefully we will get some cooking in. I'm also trying to schedule some time to see Bridget and Kari. Grace will be in town too (she is giving a seminar at UIUC 2 days after I am!), so we are going to try to meet up. It's always fun to see friends that you haven't seen in a while. Plus, I wrote my talk today, which definitely improved my attitude about the trip! It's always hard to get excited about giving a talk when you haven't prepared it yet. This afternoon I diligently sat in the fourth floor common space outside my office until my talk was written. I am more productive in that common space than I am in my office because there are no computers out there! Thus the internet, and my email, can't tempt me!

Time to go to book club...