Spice up a hot summer night with this easy Thai Beef Pasta Salad. Using bottled peanut sauce, deli roast beef, ready-to-eat salad greens and precut fresh pineapple, this one-dish meal can be ready in the time it takes to boil pasta.

Thai peanut sauce mixed with mayonnaise is the base for the dressing. Look for it in the Asian section of your supermarket.

• Fred Tasker's wine suggestion: This mildly spicy red meat dish would be well matched by a fruity pinot noir.

COUNTDOWN

• Place water for pasta on to boil.

• Prepare ingredients.

• Assemble salad.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Mangoes, peaches, plums, melon or other summer fruit can be substituted for the pineapple.

• Any type of short-cut pasta such as macaroni or penne can be used.

• An easy way to chop cilantro is to snip the leaves with a scissors.

SHOPPING LIST

To buy: 1 package fusilli (cork screw) pasta, 1 bottle Thai peanut sauce, ½ pound thick-sliced deli roast beef, 1 bag ready-to-eat salad greens, 1 red-bell pepper, 1 container fresh pineapple cubes, 1 small container dry roasted peanuts, 1 small bunch cilantro.

Staples: Reduced-fat mayonnaise, salt, black peppercorns.

Linda Gassenheimer's latest book is The Portion Plan: How to Eat the Foods You Love and Still Lose Weight. Her website is dinnerinminutes.com.

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