If, like me, you're trying to hang onto summer, these fresh tomato sauces might help with the effort.

They're sort of like a cross between sauce and salad, but tossing the premixed room temperature sauce with the freshly cooked pasta in the still-hot pot creates enough heat for a hot main dish.

FUSILLI WITH MEXICAN CORN-AND-TOMATO SAUCE

Enticing south-of-the-border ingredients – corn, jalapenos, cilantro, cumin and lime – make this tomato sauce sing with flavor.

Servings: 4

6 large ripe tomatoes

1 cup slivered or finely diced smoked ham

3/4 cup chopped red onion

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped

2/3 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound fusilli or other similar cut pasta

2 cups raw or cooked corn kernels cut from about 3 ears corn (see note)

3 cups shredded Mexican four-cheese mix

1 cup coarsely chopped cilantro

Core tomatoes and chop in rough -inch chunks. Combine in a bowl with ham, red onion, jalapeno, oil, lime juice and cumin. Season with salt and pepper and set aside at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Cook pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes.

Scoop out and reserve about cup of cooking water, then drain into a colander.

Return pasta to hot pot, add sauce, corn, cheese, and cilantro, and toss.

Add a bit of the pasta cooking water to thin sauce if necessary. Serve immediately.

NOTE: If corn is very sweet and kernels very tender, using it raw is fine. If kernels are larger and starchier, cook corn before cutting off cobs.

PERCIATELLI WITH TOMATO-TONNATO SAUCE

Perciatelli – thick, chewy spaghetti – is particularly nice with this sauce, but any strand of pasta will do just fine.

Servings: 4

6 large ripe tomatoes

2 (5-ounce) cans Italian oil-packed tuna, undrained (see note at end)

1 cup pitted imported black olives such as Kalamata

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 large fresh garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound perciatelli or other strand pasta

1 cup pecorino Romano, coarsely shredded or finely diced

1 cup torn or coarsely chopped basil

Core tomatoes and cut into rough -inch chunks. Combine in a bowl with the tuna (including tuna oil), olives, olive oil, vinegar, garlic and pepper flakes. Season with black pepper, holding off on the salt because the olives, tuna and cheese may provide enough. Set aside at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Cook pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Scoop out and reserve about cup of cooking water, then drain into a colander. Return pasta to hot pot, add sauce, cheese and basil, and toss. Stir in a bit of the reserved pasta cooking water to thin sauce if necessary. Serve immediately.

NOTE: A good brand is Genova solid light tuna in olive oil. If you can't get oil-packed tuna (and it's getting hard to find lately), use drained water-packed tuna and add about cup more olive oil.

Brooke Dojny is author or co-author of more than a dozen cookbooks, most recently "Dishing Up Maine" (Storey Publishing 2006) and "The New England Clam Shack Cookbook" (Storey 2008). She lives on the Blue Hill peninsula.