Get Cookin': Summer Pasta

What’s the trick to hot weather cooking? It’s gotta be an in-and-out thing. As little time spent in the kitchen as possible and then out into those long, shimmering evenings for some summertime fun. But just because the cook in you doesn’t feel like doing the duty on a sweltering eve doesn’t mean your stomach signs up for a night off. After a long day, up from the hollow depths of the belly of the beast comes that same old dinnertime growl, “Gimme some food.” So feed it pasta, filling and fast. A cooling spinach salad with an instant dressing and a lean, luxurious fruit soup that you can throw together in less time than it takes for the credits to roll on the 6 o’clock news. Then get out there and chase down a sunset or a pickup game in the park before the lights come on.