Pasta primavera
A light, lemony tangle of pasta with asparagus, zucchini, peppers, peas and cherry tomatoes that tastes like spring.
- 40 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $3.02 a serving
- 490 calories
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- ½ lb asparagus, trimmed, 1-inch pieces
- 1 zucchini, halved and sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 12 oz gluten-free pasta, penne or farfalle; regular pasta works too
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- ½ cup grated parmesan
- ¼ cup fresh basil, torn (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Each serving has about 490 calories, 14 g protein, 83 g carbs and 12 g fat, and costs about $3.02 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No zucchini? Yellow squash works.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No frozen peas? Frozen mixed vegetables work.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Fill a large pot with water, add the salt, cover and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
While it heats, the asparagus and cut it into 1-inch pieces, the zucchini and slice it, slice the pepper, halve the tomatoes and the garlic.
Trim. Trimming means cutting off the parts you don’t eat, like stem ends, tough bits or thick fat. It keeps chewy or bitter bits out of the finished dish.
How you’ll know: What’s left is the good part, with no dry ends, woody stems or thick white fat.
Halve. Halving means cutting something into two equal pieces. Even halves cook at the same speed, so one doesn’t dry out while the other finishes.
How you’ll know: The two pieces look like mirror images of each other.
Lengthwise. Lengthwise means cutting along the long side, from stem to tip, which gives long pieces. Crosswise is the other way, straight across the middle, which gives short, round ones.
How you’ll know: Lengthwise halves of a zucchini look like two little canoes; crosswise pieces look like coins.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Dolly’s tip: Chop everything before you turn on a burner. The vegetables cook fast and wait for no one.Add the pasta to the water and cook until , tasting 2 minutes before the package time.
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
Al dente. Al dente is Italian for “to the tooth”: pasta cooked until tender but with a slight firm bite in the center. It holds up in sauce and keeps softening a little after you drain it.
How you’ll know: Bite a piece a minute before the package time: tender, with a slight firm bite in the middle and no crunch.
High heatTimer: 10 min
Dolly’s tip: Gluten-free pasta softens fast, so taste early and pull it with a little bite left.Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large over medium-high. Add the asparagus and pepper and cook 3 minutes, stirring, until bright green and starting to .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Softened. For vegetables it means cooked until they bend and lose their crunch; for butter, left out until it dents easily. Soft onions taste sweet, and soft butter mixes in smoothly.
How you’ll know: Onions squash easily against the pan with your spoon, and butter dents under a finger without looking greasy.
Medium-high heatTimer: 3 min
Add the zucchini and cook 2 to 3 minutes more, until .
Tender-crisp. Tender-crisp means vegetables cooked until just tender but still with a little snap. They keep their bright color and crunch instead of going soft and dull.
How you’ll know: A fork goes in with slight resistance, and the color is bright, not olive or gray.
Medium-high heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Stir in the garlic, tomatoes and peas and cook 2 minutes, until the peas are hot and the tomatoes just start to slump.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min
Scoop out 1 cup of , then the pasta.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Add the pasta, lemon , 2 tablespoons lemon juice, the parmesan and ½ cup to the and over low heat until glossy.
Zest. Zest is the thin, colored outer layer of citrus peel, rubbed off on the smallest holes of a grater. It holds the fruit’s fragrant oils, so it adds bright flavor without the sourness of juice.
How you’ll know: You see bright flecks and smell citrus right away; stop when you reach the white layer, which is bitter.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Low heat
Taste, add salt and more lemon if it needs it, and serve with torn basil.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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