Recipe: Penne Primavera

5/5 - (1 vote)
Penne Primavera is a perfect and flavorful pasta dish for all year round when you don’t want to eat something heavy. The recipe is very simple and versatile so you can add different vegetables or mushrooms. Healthier than ever!

Recipe Description

So I’ve really been bare-bones in’ it lately, as I’m so backed up on bills & rent due to all the missed work from my evilly sick November/December that it’s not even funny. The fact that, as a temp, I have zero vacation/sick/holiday pay makes things even worse, so I’ve been trying really hard to subsist on leftovers of recent PGEW recipes and a lot of milk. However, there’s only so much of that that one can do without fainting, and since I’ve been doing Pilates workouts thrice daily, my body is demanding real food. I’ve been doing great as a light eater during the day; always have, probably always will do. But I don’t know if it’s the 1/4 Spaniard in me or what, I just need to eat a larger, more substantial meal at night, I just do! My favorite joke when I first lost all that MAJOR weight was that I would eat healthily during regular business hours (9-5, M-F) and eat whatever I wanted afterward, and frankly, that really worked for me. One thing I’ve learned in all my weight loss travails is that you cannot deny yourself anything; that’s just setting yourself up for failure because all you do is focus on that deprivation (I should know; you don’t keep 70lbs off for over 5 years without some good tricks!). Since I know what I need to do to be at my tiny size 4 again and HOW to do it, I’ve adopted all my former tricks; and this is one of them.

Anyway, the other day I kinda overdid it and ate far too lightly during the day, which is not good if you’re hypoglycemic. By the time I got home, I was ready to faint and to eat my bookcase for carbs & fiber but opted for a lovely pasta dish instead. Because I haven’t been able to ambulate in the general direction of my favorite farmers market lately, I haven’t had the chance to partake in fresher veggies, so the frozen ones have been my dear friends as of late. And they’re not bad friends to have during the winter; there are more nutrients in frozen veggies than in canned, and they have a far better texture and flavor than their cannéd (yes, I am bringing back accented English) counterparts. I figured this would be a good way to have a nice pasta primavera in the dead of a dismal, gray, foggy-ass winter. And so I did.

Pasta Primavera is, in general, a no-brainer, and this one is no different. Because we’re all freezing in this particular country, I’m sure a lot of us are having a hard time finding quality fresh vegetables, so please do partake in any of the frozen options out there if you’re looking for something more warm and sunny to look at and eat. I use a far bigger veggie-to-pasta ratio than most recipes do, and as opposed to a lot of the more recent primavera recipes in this world, it’s not as rich & creamy-sauce laden, so it’s actually a fairly decent option for those of us who are trying to eat more healthily. And really…. how can you go wrong with pasta & veggies for a good, economical meal, right? Enjoy, my friends. And if you’re really in a pinch for the Parmesan cheese at the end, just follow the tips I’ve given you in the past and you’ll enjoy just as hearty a meal as I have. 🙂

Details Recipe Information

Ingredients

Method

Melt the butter in a large skillet and add the garlic; cook until the garlic becomes fragrant. Add the carrots, broccoli and cauliflower florets and sauté until they become slightly tender. Add the mushrooms and peas, and sauté for about 1-2 minutes. Add the sliced onions, tomatoes, herbs, salt, pepper, milk, and the wine and allow to cook over medium heat for another 2 minutes. Finally, add the cooked penne pasta and cook for 2-3 minutes more, or until everything is warmed through and well-combined.
Serve generous amounts on medium plates, garnish with the grated parmesan and more fresh ground pepper if desired, and enjoy!
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