Mark Bittman's 101 for Summer

Today's New York Time's food section has another part of my favourite series: Mark Bittman's 101 Easy Things. Today, he features 101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics. Among the goodies he suggests are:

• PESTO CHICKEN ROLLS Season and grill chicken cutlets. Brush lavash or any other wrap-type bread with pesto; layer with the chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and arugula; roll up and cut on the bias.


• Use a spoon or melon baller to make equal size pieces of watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, or, I don’t know, Charentais. Mix together and sprinkle with lemon juice and salt or (better still) chili, sugar, salt and lime.


• Cook fusilli or other cut pasta; rinse in cool water, but don’t bother to chill. Combine with chopped seeded tomatoes, cubed fresh mozzarella, chopped basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. (Good with olives, too.) Do not call this pasta salad, because pasta salad is no good, and this is!

Bittman has a great sense of humour and these simple recipes (almost no measurements are given) will make you want to pack up a picnic basket and find a great place to go!