Pioneer Pasta Primavera

I have a love affair with pasta. Screw calories and carbs, and give me some carbonara or a creamy alfredo. I live for a simple olive oil drizzle, with Parmesan-reggiano sprinkles and a shake of pepper. When I was pregnant, I ate so much pasta that my husband begged for something different one night after almost 3 straight weeks of pasta dinners. Oops.

Everyone pitched in! Grammy's salad, Jen's garlic bread, my pasta.

 The pasta primavera recipe in The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime is a super simple recipe. The trick to making it even simpler is to pre-prep everything -a trick I've always ignored until now. I was going to be cooking this recipe at my grandparents house for family dinner and I didn't want to dirty their kitchen with my mess, plus I'm more comfortable chopping and mincing in my own kitchen. The prep was fairly simple, it just took a little time to chop all the veggies and cook the pasta. I placed everything in separate bowls based on what the recipe said to add when so I wouldn't be scrambling later.

I used bagged cauliflower and broccoli (round two) since its already chopped. Fresh basil from the store and garlic feshly minced with my garlic zoom gadget. The wine is a good one  - we served it at our wedding!

Cooking was a breeze with everything pre-measured. Pour, stir, simmer, repeat. It was nice to be able to chat with my grandparents without rushing around the kitchen trying to gather and pep everything. And the house smelled so amazing -even Grammy commented on how great it smelled, which did great things for my ego. The pasta I bought went with the recipe too; an awesome mix of pesto stuffed "normal" tortellini and cheese stuffed spinach tortellini. Delish!

Now aside from the picky eaters we had (something about kids and vegetables), it was a hit at family dinner. This dish was filling and flavorful -really fantastic, to complete the alliteration. There wasn't any left to take home, even the extra pasta I cooked was gobbed up by the non-vegetarians.

The family!

Almost gone! New family favorite for sure.

I made the dish a few days later for Thursday night dinner with my mom and step dad. Again, I pre-prepped everything and it was super easy to make while chatting with my mom. This will definitely be a recipe for the recipe box!

 All deliciousness aside, I did hit a snag when I cooked it the second time. I cooked on my gas stove Thursday night and the veggies didn't cook all the way through; they were still a little crunchy. I may not have watched the clock as well, so they didn't cook as long, or maybe I didn't have the heat setting right. We've only been in our house for a year, and I haven't figured out all the tricks to our gas range yet. Tips appreciated!

--Karie