Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Whole Wheat Penne with Creamy Basil & Veggie Sauce

whole-wheat penne in creamy veggie sauce

What do you do when you have a whole lot of fresh veggies left over and some fresh basil? You make some good pasta :) and send it over to Cate for her weekly ARF/5-a-day round up!

All the veggies mentioned in the recipe can be used as is, some new ones can be thrown in or some of them can be substituted with others - like spinach can be substituted in place of the mustard greens etc.

Software
---------------
  • 10 oz whole-wheat penne pasta
  • 1 sm. onion, sliced
  • 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 cups frozen brocolli
  • 2 cups of fresh mustard greens/spinach, chopped
  • 9-10 baby carrots, cut in circles
  • 1 small zucchini, cubed
  • 15-20 cherry/grape tomatoes, halved
  • 2 green onions sliced in circles
  • 1 tbsp red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • salt, to taste
  • milk, about 2 cups
  • 1/2 cup basil leaves, chopped ingredients for the pasta sauce
  • 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Hardware
---------------
  • One large saucepan for the pasta
  • One medium-small saucepan for the sauce
Method
---------------
  • Put a large saucepan of water on heat. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. While the pasta is cooking make the sauce as below.
  • Put the smaller sauce pan on medium high heat. Add the oil.
  • After the oil heats up, add the onion and garlic. Saute until onion is translucent.
  • Add the carrots, zucchini and brocolli. Cook for a couple of minutes.
  • Add the mustard greens, tomatoes and two thirds of the green onion. Add the black pepper, red pepper flakes (if using), salt and cook for about 2-4 minutes until the greens wilt and the tomatoes and soft to touch.
pasta sauce before adding the milk
  • Add the milk (about 2 cups) so all the veggies are well covered. Cook until the milk comes to a boil. Turn off the heat. Add the parmesan cheese and two thirds of the chopped basil.
pasta sauce already to roll

Mix in the sauce with the pasta, add in the rest of the basil and the green onions. Serve.

Kitchen Notes: The reddish tinge in the pasta totally came from the small cherry tomatoes.
You may need to add more milk depending on the amount of veggies you add.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This looks great -- will give it a try on the kids soon. they love pasta and broccoli :)

wheresmymind said...

I appreciate that you used whole wheat penne...much healthier for you :D

Sury said...

The pasta looks so inviting. I can tell it tasted yum. Will try this soon.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sam:
This recipe sounds so healthy especially with the whole wheat pasta. I am gonna try this out. Already my mouth is watering.
Nikkie

Vineela said...

Hi l2c,
Nice and healthy recipe.
Vineela

Anonymous said...

hmmm..I have been trying to leave a comment and had trouble...

Very healthy and Delicious looking pasta L2C...

Randi said...

OMG I want to dig into that right now! I have to try and make this!!

Anonymous said...

Delicious and healthy!

I always try different combinations of the veggies. This is a great sauce indeed, L2c.

Iam wondering if something else can be substituted for milk to make the sauce.

Crystal said...

Hey there - found you over on Cate's blog (Sweetnicks) and this recipe looked too good to pass up. Thanks for sharing! We'll try it and post about it.

-Crystal

Luv2cook said...

Yadbhavishya:

Sure. If you do not like to use regular milk, I would say that you could use soy milk instead. If you want to avoid the "creamy" sauce alltogether, I would increase the tomato quantity and add in some tomato puree/sauce to give it a tomato base. Hope this helps. I will include these points in the post too..thanks for the question!

Anonymous said...

tried this recipe and it came out too cool! my fatherinlaw loved it too...and that is a real compliment! love ur blog too!

Shilpa said...

I stumbled upon ur blog thru some other food blogs :-)
I tried this pasta recepie and it is so yummy...
cant wait to try other things
-Shilpa