From the Sideboard | Setting the Table No. 2
My recent favorites and Pasta Night
Every month I pull together the things I keep reaching for, opening, reading, and coveting. The pieces that are shaping what the table looks like right now and what is coming next. Here is April.
On my table right now
Bowls and bowls of fresh in season strawberries. There is nothing better than a strawberry that actually tastes like a strawberry and right now they are everywhere and we are eating them nonstop. I found the most adorable berry baskets and then also just picked up these produce containers for the refrigerator so my girls can grab fruit on their own without asking me every five minutes.
In my glass
The temperature dipped back down this week and I went straight back to a Cabernet Sauvignon. It is my usual go to and this one from Total Wine has been on my list to try. If you are a Cab person this one looks like a really good bottle at a great price.
In my kitchen
I kicked off the Setting the Table series last week with a birthday dinner, and as it happened my husband’s birthday was actually last week, so we used the table and the menu to celebrate for real. It was one of those nights where the table felt like it was doing exactly what it was supposed to do. I also have been completely craving a classic chocolate chip cookie lately and finally made a batch of Ina Garten’s giant crinkled chocolate chip cookies to keep on hand. They are perfect and they are gone.
On my nightstand
I am continuously pouring over every detail in The Layered Home right now and it is fantastic. Everything I want my house to feel like, articulated beautifully. I also have a pre-ordered copy of Annabel Monaghan’s new book on its way and I am genuinely excited for it to arrive.
Coveting
I have been spending a lot of time on the Daydress site lately, which is dangerous. I love the dress below for a pasta dinner night, it is exactly the kind of effortless thing that works at a set table without looking like you tried. And then I also completely fell for these dress and this skirt.
Pinning
This room. I found it this week and I cannot stop looking at it. The colors, the layers, the art, and honestly even the quirky doorstop. This is the reference image for everything I want a room to feel like. Layered and collected and completely unselfconscious about it.
Setting the Table — Sunday Pasta Night
The meatballs and sauce are simmering on the stove. The bread is on the counter. The table is set with the Constance tablecloth and the brass candlesticks and a terracotta planter with a maidenhair fern that lives in the kitchen and gets moved to the table on Sunday nights. The candles are lit before anyone sits down because that is the rule.
There is something about Sunday pasta night that deserves more credit than it gets. It is not a dinner party. It is not a special occasion. It is just Sunday, and Sunday has always been the day that a good meal and a set table feel like the most natural thing in the world.
The full Sunday pasta night guide is on the Trudie blog: the table, the whipped feta bruschetta to start, the weeknight meatballs, two outfit options, and all the links.
The Table
We start with the Constance. The tablecloth goes down first, the chocolate brown that makes everything placed on top of it look considered and warm. Then the Constance napkins alongside it, the same print, the same weight, the table already feeling like Sunday before anything else is on it.
White plates on top. Simple, clean, not precious. The white against the chocolate brown Constance is a contrast that does all the work you need it to do. The ivory flatware on either side, angled slightly inward.
The brass candlestick holders with ivory taper candles are the centerpiece alongside the terracotta planter with a maidenhair fern. The brass and the terracotta together against the Constance is warm and layered in exactly the right way. It looks like a table that has been loved for a long time. The tomato salt and pepper shakers sit at the center of the table because they belong there every night, not just on pasta night.
The Menu
Sunday pasta night should feel special without keeping you in the kitchen after the table is set. Everything here can be timed so you are sitting down with everyone else when dinner starts.
To start: Tomato Crostini with Whipped Feta. Creamy whipped feta on toasted bread with marinated tomatotes. Set it out before anyone sits down so the table feels abundant from the moment they walk in.
The salad: A simple arugula salad with shaved parmesan and a lemon vinaigrette. Crisp and bright alongside the richness of the meatballs. Dress it at the last minute so it does not wilt while the pasta finishes.
The main: Weeknight meatballs and spaghetti. This is a go to recipe in our family. Baking the meatballs and then simmering in the sauce make them perfection. Serve everything family style in the middle of the table so people can help themselves.
The bread: Crusty bread on the table from the beginning, with good butter. Before the bruschetta, before the salad, before anything else. The bread is not a side dish on pasta night. It is part of the table.
To finish: Cookies and ice cream. The most honest dessert for a Sunday dinner and genuinely the one everyone is happiest to see. Good cookies, good ice cream, no ceremony required. This is Sunday pasta night, not a dinner party.
To drink: a Chianti or Montepulciano served in a simple carafe on the table. The carafe is important. It makes a weeknight bottle of wine feel like something worth pouring slowly.
The Outfit
Sunday pasta night calls for something that looks like you put it together but did not have to think too hard about it. You have been home all day. The sauce has been going. You changed before dinner because it is Sunday and Sunday pasta night deserves that.
The first option is a bluebell check dress. This dress is effortless yet beautiful in the best way. Pair it with brown sandals and you are done.
The second option is jeans, a white t-shirt, and a short sleeve pointelle cardigan. This is the Sunday uniform that looks put together without trying. Add a fun rainbow beaded necklace because Sunday pasta night is a good night to wear something that makes you happy when you look in the mirror. Brown sandals on both options.
All the links from this post and every Setting the Table post live in my ShopMy page. Shop the full collection here.