Pasta Primavera

Adapted from Pioneer Woman’s Pasta Primavera, mostly simplified to account for ingredients I don’t like or was too lazy to purchase.

I’m searching for a veggie pasta dish that tastes just as good after it’s cold, to take to work for lunch. There will probably be more posts about recipes in this general field in the near future. Suggestions welcome!

Ingredients

• ~2 cups broccoli

• 3 carrots
• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• ~2 cups mushrooms
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup light cream (PW suggests half-and-half, but I had this leftover from making mac and cheese yesterday)
• basil leaves (PW suggests fresh basil, but I am lazy)
• ~1 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 lb. penne pasta

Chop up and sautée all the vegetables in butter/margarine and olive oil and a bit of water. (PW also used onions and red peppers, but I don’t like either, so I left them out.) I started with the carrots and threw the broccoli in with them, and they were done around the same time, with just a bit of bite left to the carrots; then the zucchini and squash, which take about the same amount of time; then the mushrooms. Meanwhile I also put the pasta on the stove, and dumped the cooked vegetables into a big bowl.

Then the sauce, in the same pan as you cooked the vegetables in. Start with the wine and the chicken broth (of which I probably added too much), then add the creams (of which I think I would use more next time). When the sauce has thickened a bit, add most of the parmesan and stir it ’til it melts, then add the basil and stir that in.

When the pasta’s done, dump it in the bowl with the vegetables, then do the same with the sauce, and stir it all up. Sprinkle the rest of the parmesan over the top.

The sauce is a little thin, I thought, but it’ll probably thicken as it cools, and with luck when I have this again for lunch tomorrow it’ll be perfect. I think the fresh basil and also salt and pepper would probably be a good idea, but again: lazy. It was still delicious, and I love the various flavors and textures of the vegetables with the creamy sauce.