Peek into my refrigerator during the summer and you will most likely find a big container of pasta salad. My husband, daughter and I rely on it as we come and go on busy days. We often pass one another, but when our schedules do align, the hearty and colourful salad is at-the-ready for a spontaneous family meal.

More of a riff than a recipe, my pasta salad has always contained some combination of cooked, cooled pasta (usually fusilli, but any short pasta shape will do), fresh summer tomatoes, whatever other seasonal vegetables I have on hand, a can of white beans or chickpeas, and bites of mozzarella and/or parmesan cheese tossed in a garlic-herb olive oil dressing. Because fresh tomatoes have been so central to my notion of the dish, I would automatically stop making it when tomato season would end.