It's Too Darn Hot

This week brought a terrible heat wave across much of the country, and my part of Connecticut was no exception.  Our apartment has no air conditioning, and the air flow from one end of the house to the other is agonizingly stagnant.  Heat causes physical discomfort as well as mental strain, and Vanessa and I found ourselves arguing over nuances of fan positioning and the mechanics of air airflow and temperature change.  So stupid! 

It was really, just too darn hot for June.  On the second day of the heat wave I managed to get away for a hike and swim with my friend Jackie, visiting home from the Peace Corps in Honduras.  We timed the outing perfectly in a respite between a pass-over thunder storm and a huge downpour that engulfed the area for the rest of the evening.  It was so nice to be in water on such a hot day.  We swam in a small natural pool, formed under a tiny waterfall in a local river, a place that I have returned to year after year since I was in high school.

Vanessa coincidentally, was also visiting a best friend of hers that, like me, she had not seen for a year.  Her visit required more of a trip than mine, and her car is insufferable in the heat.  Not only does her air conditioning not work, but the driver's window does not open!  The poor girl came home and collapsed. 

Now eventually this story needs to get to some food, right?  Well, here it comes.  I did not want to cook.  I did not want to turn on the stove for any significant period of time, and I certainly did not want to turn on the oven at all.  So what does one make when one is drained, tired, and wants to avoid the heat?

Pesto.

My herb garden has been more or less coming along these last few weeks; some herbs are healthy but slow to grow, some are deteriorating, and others (my chervil) have flat out died.  Fortunately, the most important herb in the garden, the basil, has taken off.  In the pouring rain that marked the end of the heat wave, I went out in my yellow raincoat, and snipped sprig after sprig of basil.  My basil is doing so well, that I daresay I could make pesto three times this week, and not hinder the plant's growth.

Fettuccine Rigate con Pesto

Dinner was delicious.  It sure as hell felt like summer, so it was refreshing to eat as if it were, nice and light.  The pesto, for those who care, was as basic as pesto gets: basil, toasted pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and grated parmesan cheese.  Very little actual cooking was done, just boiling water for pasta and toasting some nuts - everything else just came together in the food processor.

Thank God the heat is now over!