The Perfect Summer Dinner

Supposedly, it's summer. We're almost a month in, technically, but I don't think Boston got the message. June and early July have felt far more like April and it's rained probably 75% of the time, so when the sun actually peeks out, I feel the need to take advantage of it. Today was one of those days. It wasn't exactly the warmest day, but considering yesterday I wore boots to work, it was warm enough. I decided to walk home and spotted the small farmer's market that runs every Thursday across from my office. The weather has certainly affected the New England crops this year because the few times I've been able to actually get to a farmer's market, there was little stock and what they had was expensive. Finally, today I saw some great, inexpensive produce. I wished I could buy more, but I have a busy weekend ahead and know I won't have time to cook much. I settled on just two beautifully ripe tomatoes, and walked home.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with these tomatoes for dinner, but I knew that I wanted something simple, easy, and that would let the taste of the tomato come out. I thought about just cutting them up and eating them with just salt and pepper, but that didn't seem too exciting. I opened my fridge and magically, there was 5 leaves worth of basil in the drawer, still good! Then I opened my cabinet and spotted spaghetti - sold! Pasta with fresh tomato sauce it is!

I could have easily thrown this together on my own but while I waited for the water to boil I did a quick recipe search on Food Network and found this Bobby Flay recipe for Penne with Summer Tomato Sauce. I happened to have all the ingredients except the fresh mozzarella in my pantry. This recipe has all of the flavors I love with tomatoes and is completely no-cook. I mixed the tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients in a big bowl, poured my cooked spaghetti on top, and gave it a good mix. The just-drained pasta heats the sauce through and allows it to meld together. Finally, I found the small block of cheese left over from last weekend's pasta salad, and tossed that into my dish in place of the mozzarella. The final product was delicious! Fresh, light, garlicky, and slightly sweet from the balsamic vinegar. It was exactly what I wanted. I love when that happens!