Chilled Capellini with Basil, Tomatoes & Prosciutto

Summer is here, and with it comes soaring heat and humidity in Japan. When it's sweltering hot, it's hard to find the energy to cook, especially when it's going to heat up your kitchen even more. That's why I love cold noodle salads like hiyashi chuka, because the noodles only take a few minutes to cook, and the rest of the effort just involves some chopping and mixing.

We didn't have any ramen noodles in the house today, so I rummaged through the pantry and found an opened bag of capellini. Next to the pasta bin was a box of insanely sweet tomatoes I picked up at the market earlier this week, and my initial thought was to toss these together with some cheese and basil for a simple pasta pomodoro. A look in the fridge turned up some basil sauce and prosciutto, though, and I had the makings for a chilled pasta that was on low effort as it was delicious!