https://www.youtube.com/embed/6A_lonzvYo0
- If you need some new pasta ideas that aren't just tomato or cream sauce, I have a few ideas for you. Today, I'm sharing three
delicious pasta dishes that's not only super easy to make, they're loaded with veggies and flavor. So when it comes time for pasta night, your pastabilities are endless. We're starting off with a creamy, but light Pasta al Limone that's full of freshness and flavor. First, I'm gonna prep my lemon. I'm shaving off a piece of lemon peel and I'm gonna cut this piece into thin strips for garnish later. Then I'm gonna zest the rest of this lemon into another bowl, and we'll squeeze out
the rest of the juice. We're using every bit of this lemon so nothing goes to waste. Next, we'll go ahead and cook our pasta. I like using spaghetti for this dish. It really grips the creamy sauce and it's just fun to twirl. After it's done cooking, I'll drain it and then keep
some of the pasta water for insurance later.
Now, let's cook everything off. In a pan, I'll start with some butter, let it melt, and then we'll just add in
two cloves of minced garlic. Some people use shallots, some people don't use anything at all, but I love garlic so I'm gonna use it. I'll also add in the
lemon zest from earlier to give it that fried, lemony taste. Ah, that smells so good. And then once it's nice and
fragrant a minute later, I'll add in a cup of our cream, the lemon juice, and some Parmesan cheese. We'll stir it all up and then as it starts to thicken, I'm gonna add in our cooked pasta.
I'm gonna keep stirring it until it becomes a beautiful,
creamy consistency. If the sauce is too thick, just go ahead and add in
1/4 cup of pasta water to loosen it up. Cream sauce will always
thicken up as it cools, so I always err on the
side of a looser sauce. Then I'm gonna take it off heat and add in my fresh veggies, some arugula, and cherry tomatoes. You can also add in fresh
baby kale or spinach, or just leave it out if
you don't want it in there. And now we can serve. As I plate, I'll rotate the plate so that we get a beautiful nest.
And then we just top our Pasta al Limone with some more Parmesan, black pepper, and the strips of lemon zest that we worked on earlier. (light music) This Pasta al Limone is simply the zest. (light music) A red pasta sauce that's
more than just tomatoes? That's right, I'm gonna
add some pep in our step by infusing red bell
peppers into our sauce to give it a smokey and velvety texture with a hint of sweetness that'll take your pasta night to the next level.
Let's start by boiling
a pot of salted water to cook off our pasta. Nice and salty like the ocean. I'm using two medium-sized
bell peppers here that I'll chop into large chunks. Just get rid of any seeds if you accidentally cut any. And then I'll just add it to a bowl and drizzle it with some
olive oil and salt to season. I like pan roasting the peppers with some onions and garlic.
So I'm gonna throw in half an onion and two whole cloves of garlic to mix with the peppers. Now we'll just give it a quick toss to coat everything with the olive oil, and now we're ready to char it up. Now, onto a grill pan on medium-high heat, I'll let it get nice and hot, and then we'll just char our bell peppers in the aromatics for a few minutes until the pepper skin is light charred. Personally, I like blending
the skin into the sauce so I'm not gonna char it too much, but just enough so it gives
off that nice, smokey flavor.
So once we're done, I'm just gonna move all the
veggies back into the bowl, and then we're gonna pull out our blender. I'm gonna add in one cup of marinara. Here, I'm using tomato basil, but if you don't have that available, just use a can of crushed tomato and add some Italian seasoning right in. We wanna infuse our basic tomato sauce with the red bell peppers, and just not overwhelm it either way. We'll add the grilled peppers and onions, half a cup of broth. You can use vegetarian broth, beef broth, chicken broth, whatever you have on hand.
And then a dash of red chili pepper flakes just to give it a nice, spicy kick, and just give it a whirl until everything is smooth. (light music) Mm, it smells so good. Quick quality control. Mm, that's perfect. I think our pasta water is also ready. So I'm just gonna go ahead and cook up my favorite pasta, which is this rigatoni right here. So while the pasta is cooking, we'll finish off the sauce. So in my pan, I'm gonna
drizzle some olive oil and then to add some extra veggies, I always have frozen veggies on hand, and it's a great hack if you wanna add some extra nutrients to your pasta.
Alternatively, if you
wanted some extra protein, you can always add grilled chicken, Italian sausage. I would just cook it off right now before pouring the sauce in. I'll let it come to a simmer and then we'll add two
tablespoons of cream cheese to make it extra cheesy and velvety. Once the pasta's done, go ahead and drain it, and then put the hot pasta into the pan, along with a few
tablespoons of pasta water if you need to thin the sauce out. I'm gonna sprinkle in a
handful of Parmesan cheese. Now we're just gonna let it simmer and kind of meld all the flavors together. Now would be a really
great time to season it with some salt and pepper.
(light music) For a pop of color on our
roasted red pepper pasta, I like adding thinly sliced basil and some Parmesan cheese right on top. This is such a simple sauce that really packs a punch. (light music) This pesto veggie pasta is a mix of fragrant basil and nutrient-dense kale, so you can feel extra good eating it. The pesto sauce is nutty, fresh, and tastes a lot like the regular pesto that you're used to. To make the sauce, we just need a few simple ingredients here and it all goes into the blender. I have one cup of baby kale here that we're gonna start off with. These tender leaves are a lot less bitter than the dino or the curly kale that you're used to cooking with. So I think it melts really
well with the basil. To which I add two cups
of very packed basil, then half a cup of Parmesan cheese, two cloves of garlic, a 1/4 cup of walnuts. You can use pine nuts,
almonds, pistachio even.
I just find that walnuts, right now, you get the
most bang for your buck. 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, the zest and juice from 1/2 a lemon, and 1/2 a cup of olive oil. Now, just blend it up
until it's nice and smooth but a little grainy still. (light music) Let's give it a quick taste to see if we need to make any adjustments. Mm, that's perfect. Now to make our pesto pasta, in a shallow pan, I'm gonna pour in our pesto and then we'll just warm it up slightly. Then pour in a little bit of cream. We made a lot of pesto and you don't have to use it all at once if you don't want to. This'll store beautifully
in an airtight jar in the fridge for about a week. I personally love creamy pesto, but if you're a purist and just want pesto with your pasta, go ahead and leave this last step out.
For our pasta, I've already cooked some fusilli, which is a corkscrew pasta, and I just love that it holds the sauce in all those nooks really well. But use whatever shape you like best. Penne and spaghetti is
also great with pesto. I'll just pour our pasta into the sauce. Give it a good mix. And again, if you want the sauce to grip and get loose, pour in a little bit of pasta water. The pasta water is starchy so it helps everything stick. To serve it, I just add it to my bowl and then we'll garnish it
with some Parmesan cheese, chili flakes, and a little sprig of basil. Before we taste this pesto veggie pasta, be sure to check out my three
other veggie pasta ideas and give this video a like and subscribe to my channel if you wanna see more pasta recipes. Mm. Pesto is the besto. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you guys next time.
Bye!.
