Jessica is always looking for more ways to incorporate more vegetables into her life, but without making a salad.
“I want something that feels like a meal, something that feels a little decadent and it can still be made with veggies,” she explained.
So, she cooked up with veggie-filled pasta primavera with a cream sauce.
“The way I do cream sauce is a cheat, I use cream cheese and I melt it. I add some parmesan, some lemon and a ton of veggies,” she revealed.
The great thing about a pasta primavera is you can add any vegetable you like!
This segment of California Cooking aired on Episode 172.
SPRING PASTA PRIMAVERA
Ingredients:
Thinly cut shallots
1- 2 cloves of garlic
Yellow pepper chopped
Asparagus cut into small pieces
Handful of Green beans cut into small pieces
2 ears of corn
Shredded carrots
Frozen peas
Block of cream cheese.
1 lemon
Parmesan Cheese
Basil
Rigatoni
Instructions:
- Trim ends off the asparagus. Place the asparagus and green beans in boiling water with salt for 1 minute and then add them to an ice bath so they’ll stay green.
- Cut your asparagus, green beans, yellow pepper, shallots and cut corn off the cob.
- Cook your rigatoni according to the instructions on the box.
- Sautee shallots in a little bit of olive oil and a dash of salt.
- Grate garlic.
- Add ½ block of cream cheese, lower heat and let melt. Add 1/2 cup of pasta water.
- Add more cream cheese and 1/2 cup more of pasta water.
- Add all your veggies to the sauce: asparagus, green beans, yellow pepper, corn, carrots and peas.
- Add pasta directly into the sauce, add ¼ cup parmesan cheese and mix them all together. Add more pasta water if needed.
- Top with fresh basil, parmesan cheese and lemon zest.
- Enjoy!!