On Saturday, when the sky was all kinds of bruised, I hurried to the Meatpacking District to attend a fashion show. In the fashion industry, the spring season is showcased in September of the previous year and the fall season is showcased in February, so it was a Spring/Summer 2013 show I was going to see. This can be disorienting. I mean, the clothes seen on runways won’t appear in stores for another half year or so. And by the time the clothes featured half a year ago hit the stores, they already seem outdated.

On the other hand, I’ve always been the kind to be stuck in the past. To bemoan how quickly time passes, to feel tugs of anxiety when I rip another page from my calendar, to cling to the smoldering embers of things that once were. I realized that last week, I seemed to have offhandedly written off summer, as if I was ready to move on and let it go. As if I’d gotten my fill of summer fruit and summer weather and long days with endless, golden light. As if I had renounced it for its cooler, crisper sibling, who wears tissue-thin black turtlenecks with A-line skirts and knee-highs and the most stylish tortoiseshell glasses imaginable.

I still want to eat all the peaches I can get my hands on, throw together caprese salads with those glorious in-season tomatoes, walk through farmer’s markets stocked with the most vibrant produce. I wish watermelon would last and last, and that livin’ was always easy. I realize a lot of people are in one camp or the other, but I’ve always been an indecisive person, so I want the best of both worlds. Is that possible?

This pasta recipe slinked (slunk?) onto the scene, begging to be made. It’s totally an end-of-summer dish: the sauce is uncooked, requiring the freshest tomatoes, herbs, and feta you can procure. But it’s pasta, which I’ve avoided up to this point, because it’s been the last thing I’ve felt like eating in 90+ degree, humid-as-hell weather.

This dish is light, it’s hearty, and it gently eases me into a more forward way of thinking. So while I may not be ready for Spring/Summer 2013, I can begin feeling excited about wearing long sleeves again

SUMMER GREEK-STYLE PASTA WITH FRESH TOMATOES, FETA, AND DILL

Adapted from Bon Appétit
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 pound tomatoes, halved, chopped (I used cherry tomatoes)
1/2 cup chopped scallions (white and light green parts only)
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
juice from 1 lemon
2 Tbsp EVOO

2 servings of pasta

Directions:

Mix the first 7 ingredients together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Make the pasta. When ready, reserve some of the pasta water if needed and drain. Add hot pasta to tomato mixture and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper and serve. Also good cold.

Note: This should be good with pitted Kalamata olives as well, but I don’t really like them so I didn’t use them. Let me know if you do!

Also, I failed to describe the show, didn’t I? For those of you who are interested, here are some pictures I took (I decided to omit the rated-R photos, haha).

Imitation of Christ Spring/Summer 2013

It was more of a non-show. It was more of a presentation. Like an installation, rife with social commentary (on appearance pressures? Vanity and narcissism? The disturbing effect that fashion can have on women?). There was no apparent clothes on display. But lots of women of various ages in various states of undress. It was bizarre.