The Loud Oven

[Cookie] Rub the inside of the skillet with a thin film of oil. Unwrap the dough and press it in with your fingers, edge to edge, even. A pinch of flaky salt from high up. Wrap, fridge. Dessert is done.

[Spritz] Rosemary syrup: ½ cup sugar, ½ cup water and 3 rosemary sprigs in the small pot on medium. Stir until the sugar is gone, let it bubble 2 minutes, then off the heat with the rosemary still in it.

[Rigatoni] Big pot three-quarters full of water, 1 tablespoon salt, lid on, high heat.

[Spritz] Fish the rosemary out of the syrup. Pitcher: 1 cup gin, 2 cups grapefruit juice, ⅓ cup syrup. Stir, taste a spoonful, fix it with more juice or more syrup. Lid on, fridge. The 7:29 jar: 1 cup grapefruit juice, 3 tablespoons syrup. Lid, fridge.

[Rigatoni] Smash and peel 3 garlic cloves. Slit the sausage casings with a knife tip and squeeze the meat out into a bowl. Bin the casings.

[Spritz] Cut the grapefruit in half and cut 4 thin half-moons from one half. Cover, fridge. Pick out 2 good rosemary sprigs for the glasses.

[Rigatoni] Water boiling: 12 oz rigatoni in, stir once. Timer: 2 minutes less than the box says. It finishes in the oven.

[Rigatoni] Timer. Drain in the colander, shake, leave it there. Pot back on the burner, medium-high. [Board] Brie out of the fridge onto the cutting board, bottom-left corner, still in its wrapper. It needs the hour.

[Rigatoni] 1 tablespoon oil in the pot. Sausage in, broken into small chunks with the wooden spoon, stirred every minute for 8 minutes until brown with no pink. Garlic in for the last minute.

[Rigatoni] Heat off. The whole jar of marinara in, keeping ½ cup back in the jar. Drained pasta and half the mozzarella in. Stir until every tube is red.

[Rigatoni] Into the baking dish. Ricotta over the top in 10 to 12 blobs, not stirred in; the white islands are the look. The rest of the mozzarella and the parmesan over. Counter, uncovered.

[Evening] Pot into the sink to soak. Dishes done, counters wiped. Two wide bowls, two small plates and napkins set out.

[Board] Cheddar cut into finger-sized sticks, piled top-right, opposite the brie. Each slice of meat folded in half and in half again, lined up like fallen dominoes in a curve from the brie toward the middle; prosciutto gets pinched into ruffles instead.

[Board] Grapes snipped into clusters of 4 to 6, piled against the cheddar and spilling toward the centre. Crackers fanned along the empty edge, overlapping like roof shingles.

[Board] Jam jar open with the small spoon standing in it, set in the last gap. Brie unwrapped, one wedge cut out and laid beside the wheel. Bare wood filled with single grapes and a few crackers. Loose plastic over the whole board, counter. [Spritz] Two glasses into the freezer.

[Apartment] Shower.

[Rigatoni] Oven to 375°F, rack in the middle.

[Evening] Music on, lights down, overhead off, table set, candle lit. Board, still covered, moved to wherever you will sit with the drinks. Two spoons and a folded towel on the counter for later.