Pasta Your Way

My mom spent some time with us this weekend and we talked about cooking, what we’ve been making lately, how the busyness of the season seems to sap our cooking creativity. I told her about some of the pasta dishes that I make, how they are very adaptable and easy, something she could whip up in a flash.

 

If you are looking for a vegan choice, you might do a variation of a spinach and tomato pasta. You could switch out the spinach for some other sort of green or steamed brocoli, asparagus, zuchini……..see, you can use pretty much anything that you’ve around the house. Take a look at the recipe here and see what you can come up with. Switching out the herbs would be simple, too.

 

For a quick creamy pasta for the dairy eater, take 1 cup of cottage cheese, mix it with 1 egg and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. Cook the pasta of your choice, scooping out 1 cup of pasta water, after cooking, but before draining. Put the drained pasta back into the pot, do not place the pot back on the hot burner (that would scramble the eggs, we don’t want that). Pour the cottage cheese/egg mixture into the noodles, stir it through. Add the reserved pasta water, to make the sauce creamier and saucier. That’s it. The whole dish takes less than 15 minutes.

 

You could switch this recipe up by using milk instead of cottage cheese, adding a teaspoon of dijon mustard, and a cup and 1/2 of sharp cheddar cheese.  Skip the nutmeg and instead add some garlic. That’s the basis for my mac and cheese, the catalyst for the cooking discussion between Mom and me.

 

I’m going to work on some vegan variations of the creamy pasta dishes.  I’ll share them with you when I come up with them. If you have something on your blog, that you’d like to share, please let me know and I’ll share the link with my readers, as well. 

 

When I first came on board, a few other bloggers asked about the Vegetarian Blog Carnival. I haven’t forgotten about the Carnival, I’m still interested in taking part. Is it still going on?