Summertime meals beckon to be eaten outside and I find myself preferring portable dinners in weather that just can't be wasted at the dinner table. While pasta is nothing extraordinary and not quite fit for a beach picnic, it is portable insofar as my back porch is concerned. This was the perfect meal for a July evening. Linguine with tomato sauce (the simplest I've made in a long time and perhaps one of the best--canned tomatoes and paste with sauteed onion and garlic, salt and pepper, a dash of brown sugar, and garden fresh herbs--rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil) and mixed greens with balsamic vinaigrette. The key here to a perfect dinner, if one so desires and against what MFK Fisher advises, is a quiet back porch, two or three chairs (two at least for you and a loved one to settle into, an optional third as a table or cat perch) and a good glass of wine to sip after you've cleaned your plate. Preferably, wine will be taken with a green view of your garden, though a patch of grass or a blooming window box will do as well. No TV blaring, no lawnmowers growling, and no talk of work. Just food and wine and air.
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