Whole-wheat spaghettini with pesto made of kale, basil, and walnuts. Healthy and delicious.

Whole-wheat penne with roasted tomatoes, marinated white beans, basil and parmesan.

Whole-wheat pasta of any kind with lemon, asparagus, and a splash of heavy cream.

Some summery favorites:

Start pasta cooking. Add a diced zucchini and a cup of corn (frozen works fine) for the last couple of minutes. Drain. Add in half a pint of halved grape tomatoes or quartered cherry tomatoes. Stir in pesto--jarred is fine. Top with grated cheese and some crumbled bacon.

Cook pasta. In separate pan, saute veggies of your choice. We usually do sliced zucchini + minced garlic or baby spinach, halved grape tomatoes + garlic. If doing zucchini, I usually take it out of the pane, then melt about 4-6oz of goat cheese, thinned with a little pasta water or milk. If spinach and tomato, I'll melt the cheese right in the same pan. Stir into pasta (top with zucchini or other veggies if you took them out of the pan). Add fresh black pepper and a little grated cheese.

One of my all-time favorites is pasta with broccoli & garlic. Add the broccoli for the last few minutes of cooking time for the pasta or microwave it separately. Saute some minced garlic in olive oil while the pasta cooks (the more the better). Mix pasta, broccoli, garlic & oil, add lots of black pepper and grated cheese.

Made this last night:

6 plum tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
1/4 olive oli
2 cups packed fresh spinach
1 1/2 cup cubed fresh mozzarella
1 lb pasta, rigatoni

Dice tomatoes and garlic and saute in 1/4 C olive oil on low heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook pasta and continue to saute tomatoes and garlic. When pasta is done, drain and save a 1/4 cup of water to add to tomatoes. Put pasta in large bowl and toss with everything, sauteed tomatoes and garlic, spinach and mozzarella.

This one is a favorite at our house. http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2010/03/24/Penne-With-Zucchini-and-Sweet-Onion/

So easy and my 6 year old son loves it.

I have a method for what I think of as semi-homemade hamburger helper.

~1lb ground meat (turkey, beef, sausage, etc), cook through, crumbly like taco meat

~1-1.5 cups dry pasta, cook to your preferred doneness, drain

~half jar of any pasta sauce (adjust as needed for appropriate sauce coverage)

~half cup each of one or more "mix-in" - crumbled bacon, cheese (goat or blue or feta crumbles, shredded cheddar or parm, etc.), sun dried tomatoes, small broccoli bits, etc.

Mix above together in your pasta pot, then heat until the sauce is nice and hot. Taste and add spices as necessary. Yum!

DC_Teacher wrote:I am the one who posted the gnocchi recipe

I actually realized that I almost always skip adding the extra water. We added it last time and my husband thought it did something good to the garlic and onions. I could take it or leave it. So if anyone else is thinking of trying the recipe, maybe leave the water out? Its not necessary...

I am a PP who tried it this weekend and loved it. I posted that I was concerned it was watery at first but I served it with a slotted spoon and by the time it made it on the table it started drying out and an hour later when I went to put it away it had a great texture.

I do think next time I will use less water than called for, and let it sit for a few minutes before serving. I also subbed out spinach for chard and may try the seasoning someone recommended it. Thanks again - LOVE this recipe!

pasta. couple spoonfuls jarred pesto. grilled chicken. butter.

Saute chopped meat. Toss with small pasta shells. Mix meat and shells together with ketchup and garlic salt.

I am the one who posted the gnocchi recipe

I actually realized that I almost always skip adding the extra water. We added it last time and my husband thought it did something good to the garlic and onions. I could take it or leave it. So if anyone else is thinking of trying the recipe, maybe leave the water out? Its not necessary...

I am seconding the Penne A La Betsy (Pioneer Woman) recipe. I also take out the shrimp - I usually use chicken instead, or sometimes keep it meatless. This is such an easy go-to recipe and I make it all the time!

And I see I mentioned in my first post that I switched out the white wine... so just ignore that last comment I made!

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I tried the gnocchi recipe tonight, too PP who posted it, it looked amazing and clearly is getting rave reviews, but I wasn't a huge fan of it. The water never really cooked down and I think it lessened the onion and garlic flavors so the dish wound up being kind of watery and kind of bland. (bland is not exactly a great word choice as I could clearly taste the chard, the tomatoes, etc, but it didn't taste like the flavors in the dish ever "came together") Anyway, thanks for posting it bc it looked great, must just not be to my taste.

I'm the 5:27 pp-- I replaced the water with white wine. And I added plenty of seasonings to the sauce- oregano, basil, a little thyme, and red pepper. I think those changes would make a big difference, but I can also see how someone might not like it- texturally it's very homogeneous.

Funny, I tried the gnocchi recipe tonight, too PP who posted it, it looked amazing and clearly is getting rave reviews, but I wasn't a huge fan of it. The water never really cooked down and I think it lessened the onion and garlic flavors so the dish wound up being kind of watery and kind of bland. (bland is not exactly a great word choice as I could clearly taste the chard, the tomatoes, etc, but it didn't taste like the flavors in the dish ever "came together") Anyway, thanks for posting it bc it looked great, must just not be to my taste.

Anonymous wrote:I am damn near religious about my devotion to this recipe. It is AMAZING, easy to make and makes terrific leftovers.

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/skillet_gnocchi_with_chard_white_beans.html

I am worshipping you right now... I tried this tonight and I can't even believe how good it is. I used baby spinach instead of chard and 1/2 cup of white wine in place of the water and it is AMAZING. Everyone on this thread- try this!

Yay! Glad you made it and liked it - it's a great recipe! We do usually add extra cheese as well