Pasta Primavera is a delicious dish that celebrates the flavors of spring vegetables! The term primavera stands for ‘spring vegetables’! I see no reason why this veggie pasta primavera cannot be enjoyed throughout the year. It’s loaded with the goodness of veggies. For a healthy pasta primavera, use lentil or whole wheat pasta.
Pasta Primavera is a dish of Italian origin, with an American touch! if you’d like to know more about how this dish originated, you can read it here. My version of pasta primavera is light and delicious, it has no cream, making it a very satisfying meal! All the deliciousness lies in the beautiful, sweet flavor of the veggies. I’ve added a bit of red pepper flakes for that slight kick, which you may feel free to skip.
I love to keep the veggies chunky here, for a simple reason I love the bite of the veggies along with the pasta, and secondly, they do not get all mushy as they would if cut very fine. You can totally adapt this easy pasta primavera recipe to customize it to your liking. You can also add cream if you wish, or a bit of marinara sauce as well. Traditionally this dish uses spaghetti, but I’ve used penne pasta, you may use fettuccine, linguine, tortellini, capellini, rigatoni, fusilli, tagliatelle, orecchiette, ziti, etc or any other pasta of your choice.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE NO-CREAM PASTA PRIMAVERA WITH SAUTEED VEGETABLES | PENNE PRIMAVERA
1.Cook pasta as per package instructions. Reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water and set aside. Drain pasta in a colander, apply some oil and set aside. In the meanwhile dice all your veggies and set aside.
2.Heat olive oil and butter in a heavy bottomed pan, add onions, mushrooms, and garlic. Saute on medium, heat for about 3-5 minutes until the mushrooms and onions are tender. Do not brown the garlic or onion.
3.Next add in the diced zucchini, yellow squash and bell peppers. Saute for about 5-7 minutes until the veggies are tender. Do not make them mushy. Depending on how big or small you have cut them, the veggies may take more or less time to cook. Try and maintain a uniform size for all of them.
4.Next add in tomatoes, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, freshly ground pepper and chopped basil. Cook for another 2 minutes until tomatoes are tender but not mushy.
5.Add in reserved pasta water. Let it cook until it heats through. Check for salt and adjust accordingly.
6.Toss in the pasta along with lemon juice. Mix well, switch off the heat. Sprinkle some more olive oil if desired & grated parmesan cheese before serving.
NOTES 1.Feel free to add any vegetable to this dish. I added whatever I had in my refrigerator. 2.Adjust the seasonings as per your taste. 3.If you have time to spare, you can roast the vegetables with salt, pepper, olive oil, fresh herbs until tender (@400 F for 20-25 minutes, tossing them once in between), and then add them to the pasta after sautéing onion, mushrooms, and garlic. The caramelized veggies add an amazing flavor to the dish. 4.For another delicious variation, make pesto primavera, stir in a tablespoon or 2 of pesto after mixing the penne with the veggies. 5.You can also add some rotisserie chicken if you wish to make chicken pasta primavera.
HOW TO MAKE PASTA PRIMAVERA | NO-CREAM PENNE PRIMAVERA?
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