Cool Dinner Options for Hot Summer Nights

Once you try this, you will find it very easy to develop your own recipe with these two noodles

I noted four basic steps common to most of the recipes:

1. Rice and soba noodles are cooked to a softer state—not al dente—in boiling water or just soaked in water that has reached boiling and is then turned off.

2. Cooking water is not salted

3. Rise well in cold clear water after cooking to keep them from sticking later

4. You can achieve great flavoring with low-sodium soy sauce and sesame oil

5. If you sauté your veggies, use a plain vegetable oil

6. Plan for a dish that will have a variety of contrasting textures, crunchy and soft, and flavors, sweet and spicy.

Serves two as a small side dish

Ingredients

3 ounces rice noodles

¼ cup cut up fresh spinach

1 Tablespoon cut up onion

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

4 thin strips of fresh sweet red pepper

5 or 6 snow pea pods (optional)

¼ cup shredded cabbage (red and white together or just white)

1 Tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

1 clove garlic, chopped, (optional)

1 -2 slices fresh ginger (optional)

Sprinkle of hot red pepper flakes (optional)

Method

Cook the rice noodles. Rinse. Drain. Add half of the sesame oil and reserve the rinsed and drained noodles in a bowl.

Sauté the spinach, snow pea pods, garlic, ginger, onion, and cabbage in the vegetable oil. Sauté for one minute, Then add on the sweet red pepper strips (you want them to stay a bit crunchy) and sauté for one more minute.

Mix with noodles and rest of sesame oil.

Add red pepper flakes for those who like heat.

Yes, you can cook pasta ahead too, and preserve its al dente loveliness to some degree with a coating of oil, I prefer, when using Italian “noodles” to make the cold sauces ahead and add in the splendid just –right al dente noodles just before serving. If I eat it cold (room temperature), for lunch, I do so with leftovers, adding just a bit of olive oil to moisten. These cold sauces, yes, no cooking also rely heavily on summer’s best and freshest, so be ready to head over to the farmer’s market for some heirloom tomatoes and other essentials as seen in the recipes below. My two favorite cold sauces are a cold heirloom tomato sauce and pesto. Of course, there is the traditional basil pesto with pine nuts, but the high cost of pine nuts has turned me to other options. Walnuts and pistachio are also used often in Italian pesto recipes. In fact, we first pistachio pesto on a visit to the east coast of Sicily.

When using Italian “noodles” be sure to

1. Cook pasta in salted boiling water

2. Watch the pasta carefully

3. No matter what cut or type you use, cook to al dente or even a bit less than al dente if it will sit overnight or even a few hours in the “sauce.”

4. Rinse in cold water and drain

5. Time your recipe so that the sauce is done ahead, put the sauce in a bowl and add the warm, just-cooked pasta to that

6. If there are other cooked ingredients to be added, sauté those ahead of time and add them to the bowl before adding the pasta

Note: You can take cooked, al dente pasta, and toss in oil if you want to hold it aside for a while and then add sauce to it or put it into a cold sauce, but it loses flavor (to my mind) and texture, so try to arrange your cooking schedule to be able to add the pasta at the last minute.

(For 8 ounces of pasta—two servings)

Ingredients

2-3 heirloom tomatoes, mixed variety if you can

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup pecorino romano cheese

2-3cloves garlic, cut into large pieces

5-6 basil leaves, shredded

¼ cup flat Italian parsley, shredded

8 ounces of a tubular pasta. I like to use rigatoni or mezze maniche, a half sized rigatoni

(Note: Always use the best pastas you can buy. For me that is DeCecco. It’s made with the best flour and then cut into shape with grass dyes which make the sauce adhere better.)

Method

Cut the tomatoes into quarters and then halve those, being sure to preserve all of the juice. Put pieces and juice in a bowl. Add the garlic, herbs and cheese. Stir. Cover the bowl and let it sit at least four hours. Stir occasionally.

Cook pasta according to directions—taste to be sure it is al dente. Drain, Add to the sauce and serve.

Enough for ½ pound of pasta with generous “saucing”

A small food processor works great for this. I like to put this on spaghetti or cavatappi or rotini, totally different eating experience with each different kind of pasta

Ingredients

1/2 cup shelled walnuts

½ cup pecorino romano cheese, grated

½ cup shredded basil leaves—no stems

¼ cup shredded flat Italian parsley

1 clove garlic

1/4-1/2 cup olive oil.

Method

Put all dry ingredients into the processor. Add just a bit of the oil. Blend. Add more oil as it goes

Place in a bowl and add the hot pasta.

If it seems dry, add a bit more oil when you serve it.

Note: You can also use unsalted pistachios instead of walnuts. This makes it more of a Sicilian treat. If you do use the pistachios, then add some sliced cherry tomatoes when your serve the pasta. We ate it that way in Sicily. It was great! The Sicilians served it over spaccatelli, a cut not available here, but bucatini comes close.

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto, for one half pound with generous “saucing”

Note: I also call this Italian Flag Pesto. It’s inspired by a recipe I found in Food Network Magazine, but this one is my own. I roast my own red peppers and use one good –sized pepper for about a half pound of pasta. What makes it Italian flag is that the dish, when served will have red, white and green in it—the green pesto with bits of red running through on the white pasta.

Ingredients

One roasted red pepper, peeled, seeded and sliced

¼ c basil—no stems

½ cup baby spinach

1/3 cup pine nuts or pistachios

1 clove garlic

1/3 -2/3 cup olive oil

½ cup grated pecorino romano cheese

5 large pimento stuffed olives, sliced

Method

Put all ingredients, half of the olive oil and none of the in food processor and pulse until it is smooth. Add additional olive oil and pulse again if it is too dry.

Put into bowl. Add pasta. Again, spaghetti, cavatappi or rotini would be great. Put the sliced olives on top when you serve.

Again, generous covering for ½ pound

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons kalamata olives or dried Sicilian olives, pitted and sliced

2 anchovies

½ cup walnuts

3/4 cup basil leaves

3/4 cup flat Italian parsley leaves

½ cup pecorino romano grated

½ cup olive oil

1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced

Method

Mix olives, anchovies, basil, walnuts, parsley, pecorino, and olive oil in processor. Again, add the olive oil half at a time. Place in bowl. Mix with the cooked pasta and garnish with the sliced tomatoes.

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