Pasta

Sweet potato sauce for pasta? It’s offbeat, I’ll admit, but a surprisingly good match. This is wonderful with a quick sauté of bell peppers and squashes; or serve it as suggested in the accompanying menu.

Combine one filled pasta with one mild vegetable, and if you are lucky as I am, your kids might actually like this as much as you do! Serve this with fresh bread or focaccia and a platter of raw vegetables. Or, to make this a more sophisticated meal, serve with any of the mixed greens salads on pages 50 to 53, and some good wine.

Here’s a simple way to say “happy spring.” Do try this with goat cheese—the contrast of its slight bite and the mild flavor of asparagus is tantalizing.

Salsa is an easy way to dress up pasta, resulting in an offbeat, festive dish.

The secret ingredient in this smooth sauce is silken tofu. Blended silken tofu makes a great base for sauces that seem creamy, but are actually pure soy goodness. Look for it in your supermarket’s produce section (as well as in natural foods stores). Complete this meal with some fresh bread and a bountiful tossed salad. Or serve it with any of the mixed greens salads on pages 50 to 53.

Spinach fans, this pasta dish is for you. This nourishing green, enveloped in silken tofu and tossed with pasta, will comfort your taste buds and make you feel virtuous at the same time.

One of my favorite ways to use summer’s heavenly ripe tomatoes is to toss them, uncooked, with warm pasta.

A lovely cold dish to be enjoyed in late summer, this is a great vehicle for the season’s ripe tomatoes. This is delicious with Creamy Pinto Bean Puree (page 16) for a satisfying summer meal.

I used to think of lasagna as quite labor-intensive until no-boil noodles came to the rescue. It’s always a great company or potluck favorite. Now that lasagna is so easy to assemble, you might consider it everyday fare (remember, though, it does take time to bake). This is hearty enough to complete with fresh bread and a big salad.

Broccoli is one of the most harmonious additions to pasta salad. Try this in the menu with Pizza Margherita (page 154).

Here’s a light grain salad using versatile, quick-cooking couscous.

The clams in this dish are steamed with tomatoes, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes. The flavors are simple and delicious. Dinner in under an hour never tasted so good.

This is the old-school lasagna that you find in the Italian restaurants in Brooklyn. Fuggedaboudit! You can assemble the lasagna ahead of time … and it’s great for leftovers.

The flavor of peas and bacon takes me back to my childhood; that’s why I like this pasta dish so much. I feel like a little kid wolfing this down. It’s even good cold!

This salad is wonderful served warm or at room temperature with French bread and a green salad.

This is a quick and easy main dish. Although most shrimp you buy have been frozen, this dish is absolutely superb made with fresh shrimp, the largest you can find.

I’ve baked these spicy chicken breasts for crowds, and always receive lots of compliments. The original recipe was for grill-cooking, but this version works year-round.

Roasting brings out the sweetness of vegetables and intensifies their fresh flavors. Vary the vegetables if you wish, but follow this general pattern: Roast the vegetables, remove skins if necessary, puree, and flavor the puree with fresh herbs or garlic. Serve over hot pasta or use as a sauce for lasagna.

Eggplant, zucchini, sweet onions, and tomatoes all roasted together thicken by themselves to make a deeply flavored sauce for pasta. It’s a meal that’s ready in less than half an hour.