"No-cookDinners" news and stories

We've talked before about meals that require minimal cooking to go from kitchen to table. How about a couple of dishes that only require a bit of chopping and a single pot of boiling water for the pasta? The first recipe comes from Nigella Lawson. She appeared on NPR's morning edition last week, and offered up a no-cook pasta sauce that marinates sliced mushrooms in a vinaigrette of lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and thyme until they wilt. Then she tosses them with just-cooked linguine, some grated parmesan cheese and chopped parsley for an easy meal. You can get the recipe on the NPR website, but I recommend listening to the segment as well, as Nigella is always so nice to listen to.

The second no-cook recipe is my take on a recipe I've seen all over this summer. It's so easy that there's hardly even an actual recipe to share at all. Chop up two big summer tomatoes (it's really gorgeous if you use a combination of red and yellow tomatoes). Drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil and add a pinch of salt and a couple of grinds of black pepper. Stir it up and push it to the back of the counter for half an hour. In the mean time, put a large pot of water on to boil. When the water is boiling, add some salt and pasta (any kind you like, I'm a fan of cappellini). While the pasta cooks, chop some basil and pull a ball of mozzarella cheese apart into shreds. Add the cheese and basil to the tomatoes. When the pasta is done, loosely drain it and add it to the tomato bowl. Toss and eat. The heat of the pasta melts the cheese a bit and gives the sauce a creamy, blushing color. It is so delicious.

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We are having something of an unprecedented heat wave here on the East Coast (and it's not even officially summer). Yesterday it was 96 degrees and they are predicting that it will top out right around 100 degrees today (and with the humidity, that means it feels more like 105). I have a brisket in defrosting in my fridge, but the last thing I want to do is turn my oven on long enough to get it cooked (it will just have to wait until Wednesday, when the heat breaks).

On nights like this, I turn to cool summer greens from the fridge and cans from my pantry. I always keep black beans, pickled beets, garbanzo beans, artichoke hearts and tuna in olive oil in the kitchen cabinet, so that I can augment veggies with much-needed (at least for me) protein. I create a table top salad bar with the beans, tuna, diced tomato, sliced cucumber, grated cheese, carrot rounds and anything else I can find and go to town. If you need a carb with your meal, add some crackers or bread from a local bakery.

That's my basic meal for those nights when I can't bear to heat up my apartment. How do the rest of you beat the heat in the kitchen*?

*I know that those of you out on the West Coast are freezing and still wearing your winter coats. What are you eating these days?