Stephanie is on her way to France tonight, which means I am home alone, and I happened to cook myself a dinner that she would have appreciated, which made me miss her all the more.

Through some sort of clerical error, I received our biweekly CSA veggie box today, even though I’d asked that it be suspended while we’re away (I’ll be joining her in France next week). So after pawning off some surplus veggies on my coworkers, I brought home heirloom tomatoes, plums, and a whole bunch of peppers. The tomatoes sounded like dinner to me. At first I envisioned a classic insalata caprese, with bread to sop up the juices, mais bien sûr‎, but we’d had pizza the night before, and I’d had a sandwich for lunch, so I opted for couscous instead.

While a quarter cup of couscous was hydrating, I chopped two of the tomatoes, some of the copious basil we have growing in a pot, and a handful of marcona almonds seasoned with rosemary from the pantry. All this went into a bowl along with half a ball of fresh mozzarella that I’d picked up on the way home and diced, plus the juice of an old lemon that was laying around. I mixed in the cooked couscous, some salt, and a healthy glug-glug-glug of olive oil. The result was wonderful.