Meghan was the Food Editor for Kitchn's Skills content. She's a master of everyday baking, family cooking, and harnessing good light. Meghan approaches food with an eye towards budgeting — both time and money — and having fun. Meghan has a baking and pastry degree, and spent the first 10 years of her career as part of Alton Brown's culinary team. She co-hosts a weekly podcast about food and family called Didn't I Just Feed You.
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updatedSep 30, 2020
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Pasta makes an appearance on our meal plan at least once a week. My two young kids love it and are guaranteed to eat whatever it’s served with, and it’s also inexpensive!
I’d like to think that all pasta recipes are family-friendly, but it doesn’t hurt when a recipe checks the following boxes: It’s easy to cook and clean up, it includes enough vegetables to make sure everyone gets their daily intake, and it has plenty of flavor that both kids and adults will love.
Here are 10 family-friendly pasta recipes that always make my meal plan.
1. How To Make Creamy Avocado Pasta
I really try to avoid this phrase, but this pasta sauce is life-changing. You just throw all the ingredients in a blender and give it a whirl, which means prep and cleanup are a breeze. Also, this sauce is a creamy dream, somewhere between a pesto and an Alfredo. Plus if you really want to you, can throw a handful of spinach in the blender for added color and nutrition.
2. Lemony Broccoli Pasta
My kids love broccoli and would eat it at every meal, but I personally get bored with it pretty quickly. This lovely lemon number keeps boredom at bay and is quick enough for the most harried weeknights.
3. One-Pot Cheesy Taco Pasta
This one-pot pasta bake is perfect for using up leftovers or just making the most of your taco Tuesday. Studded with corn, black beans, and spicy ground beef, this pasta is anything but boring.
Here’s what is really smart about this riff on SpaghettiO’s: The meatballs are just sausage you roll into balls! That’s right — no mixing up raw beef, eggs, and breadcrumbs. Plus, look how cute and nostalgic it is in the dish.
5. Pepperoni Pizza Baked Pasta
We have pizza at home once a week, so I’m always looking for ways to use up the leftover sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. This baked pasta number always does just that while delighting my own children and the neighborhood friends who occasionally find themselves at our table.
6. Pesto Tortellini Pasta Salad
Here’s a pasta salad that you’ll want to memorize for summer. Toss tortellini with pesto, olive oil, and cheese, and then you can add any vegetables you want. We often throw chopped cooked chicken and feta cheese on top for the adults too.
7. How To Make Mac and Cheese in the Slow Cooker
Listen, if you don’t believe in miracles this mac and cheese may transform you. Seriously! It’s mac and cheese in a slow cooker — its easy perfection and deliciousness cannot be understated.
8. How To Make One-Pot Chili Mac
I like to say that chili mac is a lot like a love child of mac and cheese and chili, and a delicious one at that. However, I also find it a vehicle for getting my own children to devour beans and vegetables under a swath of cheese and tomato sauce.
9. Creamy Spinach Parmesan Orzo
Praise the gift that is orzo for a quick weeknight dinner. This Parmesan version is something like risotto meets mac and cheese and requires just one pot and less than 30 minutes.
10. How To Make an All-Star Baked Ziti
Baked ziti is the pasta dish that you need to know for feeding a crowd. It feeds a whole soccer team, plus their parents and siblings, but only takes about half an hour to come together. Make it for Sunday dinner and you can freeze half for the future too.
Gricia, Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe, and Amatriciana are all simple pastas that share the same big flavors of Pecorino-Romano, black pepper, and—in three of the dishes—cured pork. Published Oct. 18, 2018.
Ditalini pasta is shaped like a small tube and is also referred to as “tubettini.” These tiny short pastas are often used in soups, like a minestrone soup of Italian origin made with vegetables, including beans, onions, celery, carrots, stock, croutons, and tomatoes.
Linguine are the most well-known type of long pasta from Liguria: they resemble a small, flat, narrow tagliatella-type pasta and were created to be eaten with traditional pesto.
Boil with a garlic clove and salt. The garlic adds a bit of flavor and then I remove it, mash it and re-add it to the pasta. Olive oil or butter and herbs. Adding a fat to the pasta makes it taste better if you're poor and need something.
There are over 600 different pasta shapes, each with a useful purpose. Long pasta, short pasta, stuffed pasta, pasta for soups- the uses for pasta are endless! Some pasta shapes and sizes are better suited for holding sauces in the ridges, while others are much better for baked dishes.
Many pasta cuts originated regionally and, often, many cuts were being produced in several regions but were known under separate names. Due to pasta's widespread popularity and numerous producers, there are now over 300 shapes available today.
Introduction: My name is Fr. Dewey Fisher, I am a powerful, open, faithful, combative, spotless, faithful, fair person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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