Italian Pasta Recipes: Not Just Spaghetti
Like many other types of food, Italian pasta recipes tend to change their nature and composition with the changing of the seasons. You may want the heavier, meatier dishes like spaghetti and meatballs or the thick, meaty, cheesy layers of lasagna during the dead of winter. But as spring progresses into summer, you may find yourself leaving the meat recipes on the shelf and favoring something lighter, with spring vegetables as the main elements. These pasta dishes can accommodate any season and any mood.
Sometimes all you need in spring and early summer is not so much a bunch of Italian pasta recipes, but just a few herbs and perhaps some feta cheese and kalamata olives with olive oil, or tomatoes with basil and Parmesan cheese. The pasta itself is almost like a blank canvas upon which you add your own artistic details in the sauces and vegetables you include. But there’s no doubt that if you’re in the mood for something light, herbs add springtime appeal to pasta dishes.
Another of the Italian pasta recipes that will work well in spring is pasta pomodoro. This dish owes its flavor to the sauce itself, which is based on the traditional blend of tomatoes, olive oil and garlic. Beyond those basic ingredients, you can add others to your taste, including sauteed onion, mushrooms and peppers, or even some meats. This dish is said to go especially well with poultry, so you might want to add chunks of cooked chicken to the sauce.
Italian pasta salads also become prominent as spring progresses, and they too can be light or a little heavier. Some recipes are as simple as tossing some pasta with fresh tomatoes, feta cheese, olives and basil. There are more complicated versions as well. For example, an Italian sausage pasta salad at Epicurious.com calls for chunks of the sausage to be sauteed, adding broccoli and zucchini, with tomatoes, olives, wine and Parmesan cheese added toward the end. But pasta salads also lend themselves well to vegetarian recipes as the sausage dish could easily be adapted to be meatless.
You can use all sorts of different pastas, and will discover that there’s a method to their amazing variety of shapes and sizes. The different shapes will actually affect how sauces are retained or even how other ingredients are held together. Between the different types of pasta and the Italian pasta recipes themselves with their variety of creamy, tomato-rich, vegetable or meat-filled sauces, you can create full meals, side dishes or light salads, covering almost any mood, weather condition or time of year.
Nothing beats the taste of fresh pasta made right in your own home. And surprisingly, it’s not difficult at all to make. Click here to learn how a pasta roller machine such as the Imperia pasta maker can make it easy for you.
