Quick Pasta Meals

One of our most recent Fresh Chef Experiences focused on getting quick meals on the table for the family. Debbi hired Fresh Chef Experience for a private cooking lesson featuring ideas she could use for making pasta for her sons. After reviewing Fresh Chef Experience options, Debbi chose to learn Rigatoni with Green Olive-Almond and Asiago pesto and Torcelli with Almond, Pistachio and Pecorino Romano pesto. She also chose a quick stovetop tomato sauce -Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce with Fresh Spaghetti and Grilled Chicken – as her third recipe.

Pesto is perfect for getting fast meals on the table. Using just a food processor, you can literally pulse together a quick tasty thick sauce in minutes – no chopping required!  Then by simple adding a little pasta water, pesto can quickly become a delicious sauce for pasta. The flexibility of pesto is nice as well since you can use different herb bases to add more variety. Since Debbi has an herb garden in the summer, she loved the idea of taking her fresh basil or parsley and creating a quick sauce.

Quick stovetop pan sauces are great for pasta as well. The Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce was done in minutes and by simply added it to spaghetti it made an easy “kid-approved” meal. Grilled chicken can be added for additional protein or left off entirely for a meatless dish.

Below is Debbi’s blistered tomato sauce in the works. Great job Deb – it tasted delicious and the boys loved it!