For a delicious pasta and pesto dinner, simply cook some of your favorite pasta and drain it (but save some of the water for making the pesto – see recipe, below). Make the pesto, then pour some of it onto the pasta and mix the two items together. Grate a little extra Parmesan onto the pasta, if desired. Serve with a green salad, crusty bread, and a glass of your favorite wine.

Here’s a recipe for traditional Basil Pesto, taken from the cookbook, Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes, by Giada De Laurentiis.

BASIL PESTO

2 c. (packed) fresh basil leaves
1/4 c. toasted pine nuts
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp. salt, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper, plus more to taste
About 2/3 c. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a blender, pulse the basil, pine nuts, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper until finely chopped. With the blender still running, gradually add enough oil to form a smooth and thick consistency. Transfer the pesto to a medium bowl and stir in the cheese. Season the pesto with more salt and pepper to taste.

The pesto can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

And here’s the SECRET to making pesto into a great pasta dressing. “Mix in just enough of the pasta cooking liquid to get the pesto to coat the pasta, but not so much that you’ve created pesto soup,” says De Laurentiis. She also says that while traditional pesto is a green sauce made with pounded basil and pine nuts, “these days any uncooked sauce that’s easy, quick, and pureed can be called a pesto.”

Look for additional pesto recipes in her cookbook.

Easy Insalata Caprese

It’s tomato time! And, if you’re a gardener, you might be wondering what you can do with all those luscious tomatoes growing in your backyard right now. One of the easiest, yet most delicious, dishes to enjoy at the height of summer, when tomatoes are plentiful, is Insalata Caprese (named for the Island of Capri, Italy). The secret to this delightful dish is using only the freshest ingredients.

When served with fresh bread and a glass of chilled white wine, Insalata Caprese makes the perfect summer lunch. Here’s all you need:

2 lbs. vine-ripened tomatoes that are red, juicy and flavorful and have never been refrigerated (Get them at your local farmer’s market if you don’t have your own backyard vegetable garden)

8 to 10 leaves of fragrant young basil (Again, check for basil at your farmer’s market if you don’t grow your own)

1 lb. good quality fresh, moist mozzarella (The best mozzarella for this dish is made from buffallo milk – mozzarella di bufala – but that’s hard to find, so cow’s milk mozzarella – mozzarella fior di latte – works well for this, too)

1/4 c. genuine extra-virgin olive oil

To make the salad:

Slice the fresh mozzarella and the tomatoes into rounds. Alternate slices of mozzarella and tomato on a platter (or individual salad plates), overlapping them for effect.

Tear the basil leaves into small pieces and sprinkle them over the slices of tomato and mozzarella.

Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Just before serving, drizzle with olive oil.

That’s it! I told you it was easy.

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Start with a single-serve prepared pizza crust like Boboli, or some flatbread. I prefer a flatbread-wrap type bread called Flatout. You’ll need one single serving Boboli or one piece of Flatout per person.

Use a pastry brush to spread the Flatout, or pizza crust, with a light coating of olive oil, then put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5 to 7 minutes.

While the crust is in the oven, take a few pieces of fresh garlic and saute them in olive oil. Then, remove them from the oil and mash them in a bowl with a fork. Add about 1/2 cup of softened cream cheese to the garlic and mix together well. This will be enough cheese mixture for about 4 individual pizzas.

Remove the pizza crusts from the oven. Cover the top of the crusts with the cream cheese mixed with garlic, spreading it out evenly over each pizza. Next, for every two pizzas, cut an orange pepper and a yellow pepper into thin strips, slice a ripe tomato, and tear a few fresh basil leaves into small pieces. Place all these items onto the top of the pizza crusts (as shown). Grate a little Parmesan cheese over the vegetables and add a little freshly ground pepper. Put the pizzas in the oven for about 15 more minutes until the cheeses melt. Serve immediately.

True Limoncello is made only in Sorrento. But, if you can’t go to Italy this summer, buy some of the best lemons you can find and make a tangy lemon liqueur yourself that tastes very much like true limoncello.

Here’s the recipe: Limoncello

I haven’t tried this one yet, but doesn’t Limoncello Cream sound delightful?

You probably already have all the ingredients for this mixture in your cupboard. It makes enough rub to coat about 4 large chicken breasts or 1 small (cut up) chicken. Use chicken that still has the bones and at least some skin. As the chicken grills, the sugar and fat melt with the herbs and spices so the meat is moist and flavorful.

SPICY CHICKEN RUB

1/4 c. sugar

1 Tbsp. salt

2 tsp. freshly ground pepper

1 1 /2 tsp. lemon zest

2 Tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

2 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. oregano

2 tsp. dry mustard

2 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 1/2 tsp. onion salt

1 1 /2 tsp. garlic powder

Wash the chicken pieces. Blend together all the rub ingredients in a large shallow bowl or other wide dish. Dip each piece of chicken into the spice mixture. Rub the mixture into the skin, and under the skin, of each piece of meat. Put the coated chicken pieces in a large resealable plastic bag and place the bag in the refrigerator until time to grill the chicken.

When it’s time to cook the chicken, grill it as you normally would. It will smell wonderful as it cooks!

NOTE: The longer you leave the chicken in the rub mixture in the refrigerator, the better (but allow for at least 3 hours).

TOFFEE CRUNCH BARS

1 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt

Cream shortening and brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Mix in flour and salt. Press into greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes (until brown on the edges). Frost immediately with chocolate powdered sugar frosting. Cut into squares when the frosting has set.

MINT COOLER

2 c. boiling water
8 mint tea bags
1 1/2 c. lemonade
2 c. orange juice
2 c. crushed ice
2 (12 oz.) cans ginger ale
Orange Slices and mint sprigs

Steep the mint tea bags in the boiling water for about 3 minutes. Add the lemonade, orange juice, ginger ale and mix well. Add the crushed ice and mix again. Pour into a pretty pitcher.

Add orange slices and mint sprigs to the pitcher or garnish individual glasses with these items (and other fruits if desired).

Serve immediately.

Here’s an easy, yet delicious and impressive way to serve spinach.