July 11, 2025
I disappeared a little in June. Summer does that to me. I am back with a recipe (a summer staple), an original cocktail, and a record.
Yes, I was mostly absent here in June, and I blame it on summering, though my version involves zero yacht clubs and lots of soft serve.
June is a top-tier month for me. The light lingers later, the calendar stays relatively light, and I believe in a kind of ambient permission to do less. I try to savor it, knowing that right after the solstice, the days start shrinking again. I get a little sad about that every year.
This month, I’ve been thinking about reclaiming the color red. Tomatoes on the windowsill, a nearly bursting pomegranate, peeling paint on a beach lifeguard chair, red bathing suits, those plastic red baskets used to serve fried things, or a red lip that’s half-worn off from dinner. I’m trying to show my love for this perfect color even if it’s been co-opted by... unfortunate hats.
I’ve also been cooking the kind of food that’s best eaten cold and from a Tupperware container. Mediterranean-ish things: oily, herb-flecked, bright. Stuff you can toss in a cooler and eat while watching the tide inch closer to your toes.
Anyway, I’m back. I have things to share. Let’s get into it.
Thing # 1
Melissa Clark’s Pasta Salad (with a few mods) — A Recipe
This reminds me of the pasta salad my mom used to make—served straight from the Tupperware, warm from the sun, with herbs clinging to the sides of the bowl. We’d eat it by the pool with wet towels and plastic forks, everything tasting a little oily, a little olivey. The cucumbers go soft, the noodles soak up the dressing, and that’s exactly how it should be.
Tomatoes, mozz, kalamatas, salami, and herbs—aka the dream team—tossed in a punchy garlic-and-red wine vinaigrette with a generous shake of oregano. Let it marinate and serve at room temperature for the best flavor. It only gets better as it sits.
Ingredients
For the Dressing:
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar, plus more to taste
3 garlic cloves, finely grated or minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
For the Pasta Salad:
1 pound fusilli, cooked based on package directions
1 pint Sungold or sweet cherry tomatoes, halved
8 ounces marinated mozzarella balls (Important: Use BelGioioso Marinated Fresh Mozzarella—reserve the marinade!)
4 ounces salami, sliced and cut into ¼-inch ribbons
½ cup kalamata olives, smashed or sliced
½ cup Castelvetrano olives, pitted, smashed, or sliced
½ cup cucumber, thinly sliced and quartered
3 tablespoons shallots, very finely chopped
1 cup fresh parsley and basil leaves, coarsely chopped
Preparation
Step 1 – Make the Dressing:
In a large bowl, combine red wine vinegar, garlic, oregano, and a big pinch each of salt and pepper. Whisk in olive oil. Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt, pepper, or vinegar if needed. Set aside.
Step 2 – Cook the Pasta:
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Cook fusilli (Melissa calls for farfalle or short pasta, but I prefer fusilli) according to the package directions, until al dente. Drain well. While the pasta is still warm, add it to the bowl and toss with the reserved mozzarella marinade. (This is a major modification to Melissa’s recipe.)
Step 3 – Make the Salad:
Add tomatoes, mozzarella balls, salami, olives, cucumber, and shallot to the bowl. Toss well. Fold in the basil and parsley. Taste and season with more salt, pepper, or vinegar, if needed.
Step 4 – Finish & Serve:
Drizzle with some of the prepared dressing and crack fresh black pepper over the top just before serving. You can reserve a bit of dressing to refresh any leftovers the next day.
I made a few small modifications to Melissa’s recipe—nothing too rogue, I promise. I used the marinade from the mozzarella balls, upped the garlic, swapped red onion for shallot, added Castelvetranos, and went with fusilli. Definitely not trying to be one of those people in the NYT recipe comments who reinvent the entire dish—just want to give credit where credit’s due, since I wasn’t starting from scratch.
Thing # 2
Orange No. 3 — A Cocktail
100% claiming this recipe. Created by accident when I couldn’t get my hands on Cointreau and wanted an apéritif that used a good bit of bitters. It’s a really interesting mix. It is rich, bitter, and aromatic—but it's also pretty intense, especially with a half ounce of Angostura, which is unusual—I mean, it’s typically measured in dashes, not pours.
This is a stirred cocktail that leans into the warmth of the vermouth and bitters as Gran Gala lends subtle sweetness. Garnished with a slice of lemon, this drink is a slow sipper. A bitter and bright nightcap.
Orange No. 3 – Recipe & Method
Ingredients:
0.5 oz Angostura bitters
1.5 oz sweet vermouth (such as Cocchi Vermouth di Torino)
1 oz Gran Gala orange liqueur
Lemon slice (for garnish)
Instructions:
Chill your glass:
Place a coupe or Nick & Nora glass in the freezer to chill while you prepare the drink.Build the cocktail:
In a mixing glass, combine:0.5 oz Angostura bitters
1.5 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz Gran Gala
Add ice and stir:
Fill the mixing glass with ice. Stir gently for about 20–30 seconds, until the drink is well chilled and slightly diluted.Strain and serve:
Strain into your chilled glass using a Hawthorne or julep strainer.Garnish:
Garnish with a fresh lemon slice placed on the rim or floated on top.
Thing # 3
Nina Simone at Town Hall — A Record
Nina Simone at Town Hall is not quite a debut and not quite a homecoming. It was September 1959, and Simone—27, classically trained, contractually obligated—stood before a New York audience that, for once, had come to listen. Not drink. Not talk. Listen.
This was only her fourth album. She was still calling herself a pianist who happened to sing. That, of course, would not last. What’s captured here is the moment an artist, mid-pivot, takes flight without warning. You hear it in the control. You hear it in the joy. You hear it in the way she squeals, almost involuntarily, after a song lands.
She didn’t write Summertime, or Wild Is the Wind, or Fine and Mellow. It doesn’t matter. The possession is total. She sings them the way people confess things they didn’t plan to say.
There is only bass and drums behind her—Jimmy Bond and Al “Tootie” Heath, both trying to keep up. She moves from aching ballads to airy cabaret to songs that feel like open letters left on kitchen counters. The critics called it a sensation. She called it the moment she became, overnight, what she already was.
Nina is one of my all-time faves, and her song Baltimore knocks me out every time. It’s not loud or dramatic—it’s almost nothing. Just her voice, low and plain, letting the words fall exactly where they want to land.
It’s that delivery—small, resigned, perfect—that makes the whole song click into place. Nina could pack more into a single line than most people manage in an entire album. And here, she barely even tries. Which is why it wrecks me.
Bonus Things!
Shell Accessories are a Thing Here for this 90s-coded trend. Remember puka shells?
How Dreamy Is Barbara Kingsolver's Appalachian Garden?
How Trump Upended 60 Years of Civil Rights in Two Months
How To Build A Killer French Cheese Plate
If You Don’t Know Who You Are, They Win
That’s it for this week’s dispatch of Things on Friday. Thanks for reading, and here’s hoping you’ll stick around for more future Things!
Signing off from Shark Bite Capital of the World
— Staci