Nothing says summer like pork roast

Summertime, and the livin' is easy in the kitchen, to paraphrase Gershwin.

Slice tomatoes. Boil corn. That's really all you need for side dishes. Oh, maybe slice some cucumbers, too.

As for the main dish, Madeline Arthur Hawkins, a friend's grandmother, used to say sagely, "A pork roast is as good as any steak." Of course, she was saying this back in the days of what I like to call "happy pigs." You could taste contentment in their meat.

Happy pigs were raised outdoors instead of in factory farms and were free to root around. It was not yet fashionable for pigs to be ultra-lean, either; if you study photos of champion pigs of bygone days in old books, you will see what I mean.

But I digress from the matter at han - supper.

Cold roast pork is wonderful sliced the next day, making it an ideal do-ahead for company.

These days, in order to get a succulent pork roast, you need to find fresh pork shoulder, often labeled picnic roast or Boston butt, contradictory as that may sound. In communities where the word for roasted pig is lechon, you are more apt to find a large shoulder cut, but if you plan ahead, you can ask a butcher to order one. Or ask for a loin to be boned but take the bones home and cook the roast on top of them for more flavor.

If the meat seems hopelessly lacking in fat, "lard" it by draping it with bacon, or rub it with a paste of herbs such as thyme and rosemary (heavier on the thyme), salt and olive oil.

Once, pork roasts could be cooked on a rack, with no additional moisture added to the pan underneath. In today's world of dry meat, you need a bit of liquid to create steam.

I am a fan of cooking roasts long and slow for maximum tenderness. If you don't sleep too late, you can let it go all night. (A hunk of beef brisket, too, can be cooked all night by the slow method.)

Now what could be easier than that? It's summer.