Summer food is a very particular quandary: some of the best produce of the year, during arguably the worst cooking season (too hot, too stuffy, too sweaty). The no-cook route is great, paved with salads and stone fruits aplenty, but it’s when you find yourself on the internet searching, “How many nights in a row can I eat watermelon for dinner?” that you know things have gone too far. Consider this chilled noodle salad for such times. The cooking, if you can call it that, is limited to boiling a pot of noodles. (Resist the urge to cook them al dente, as you would pasta. Chilled noodle salads benefit from well-done noodles.) The sauce involves grating tomatoes—summer’s most ephemeral joy—into a bowl and whisking in creamy peanut butter and a series of fridge-door condiments. The end result is a refreshingly tangy and spicy dinner.
