Just because tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and zucchini are no longer in season doesn’t mean you can’t make a fabulous vegetable-based pasta.
You can turn almost any vegetable into a pasta sauce, including winter vegetables. Here are some of my favorite pasta and winter vegetable combinations:
- Linguine with Slow-Cooked Onions and Olives – When cooked slowly, onions caramelize into sweet, melt-in-your mouth morsels that pair perfectly with salty olives.
- Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Leeks and Chile – Leeks cook down into sauce in no time. Nutty whole wheat pasta and dried hot chiles enhance their sweet flavor.
- Penne with Fresh and Dried Mushrooms – Dried wild mushrooms like black trumpets enhance the taste of ordinary white button mushrooms.
- Linguine with Braised Savoy Cabbage and Roasted Garlic – Braised cabbage makes a rich, buttery pasta sauce.
- Whole Wheat Farfalle with Roasted Potatoes – The nutty flavor of whole wheat pasta complements tender browned potatoes.
- Penne with Winter Squash – Winter squash has such a long storage life that you could make pastas with it until spring-time. My favorite combo is butternut squash with hot red pepper flakes and nutmeg. The sauce is sweet, hot, and spicy – perfect for a cold day.
- Ziti with Roasted Carrots, Capers, and Herbes de Provence – Dried Herbes de Provence provide fresh-herb flavor even in the middle of winter. Goat cheese is a nice addition here.
- Whole Wheat Farfalle with Lentils and Kale – Kale is already a superfood, but pair it with lentils and whole wheat pasta and you’ll have an incredibly healthful dish.
- Soba Noodles with Chard and Oranges – Check out my recipe here.
- Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce – Make the sauce from San Marzano tomatoes that were frozen or canned during the peak of their season
Image courtesy of gravity_grave via a Creative Commons license.
Yum, I love pasta and winter veggies. Thanks for posting all these delish combos.