How To Make One-Pot Pasta Primavera

Where once I’d pounce on a chef-made bowl of al dente pasta and crisp-tender spring vegetables, now it’s a dish I prefer to make at home. Using what’s fresh and new at the market, I slice and dice carrots, bell peppers, peas, spring onions, and baby Broccolini before tossing them into a pot to quickly cook with penne pasta.

Finished with bright and citrusy lemon butter and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, this warm-weather supper is perfection. And the best part? I can enjoy it from the comfort of my own porch — no restaurant required.

Unsurprisingly, the 1970s lay claim to the “invention” of this pasta and vegetable dish. After the decades where condensed soup casseroles ruled at home and rich French cuisine was the go-to in restaurants, the pendulum finally swung the other way.

Disco-era chefs in New York looked to Italy for inspiration, where families had combined fresh spring vegetables with pasta for generations. The word “primavera” means springtime in Italian. In an era before seasonal cooking was commonplace, pasta primavera was the recipe to order for the best and brightest of spring vegetables.

Early incarnations of this dish call for an Alfredo-like sauce, which I find too heavy and overwhelming for tender spring vegetables. Instead, brighten the starch-thickened sauce with some lemon and a handful of Parmesan cheese. As the penne cooks, the noodles peek out from the diminishing water level, thickening the liquid with the pasta’s starch. This starchy liquid is the beginning of a light, silky sauce. Stir the garlic-lemon butter in until it melts into a lemony sauce, lightly dressing the pasta and vegetables.

• We call for a variety of winter and spring vegetables that add texture, color, and flavor, but this is just a guide. Toss in any variety that catches your eye during your weekly market shop. The key to pasta primavera is using the freshest vegetables available.
• Mix this vegetable and pasta dish in a large Dutch oven or pasta pot. It is chock-full of vegetables and you’ll need more room than you think to stir them together.
• Mash garlic, lemon zest, and butter together to stir into the starchy cooking liquid to make a light sauce. A sprinkling of Parmesan adds just the right level saltiness.

The primary pasta primavera pitfalls are oversized and undercooked vegetables and long strands of spaghetti slipping through your fork.

The key is to cut the vegetables down to a size where they cook together quickly. Take carrots and sweet English peas: Typically carrots take longer to cook than the peas, so here we’re thinly slicing the carrots, cutting them thinner and smaller so they cook in the same two minutes as the rest of the vegetables. As a rule of thumb, trim vegetables to 1/2- to 1-inch pieces. If in doubt, set your knife down and simply consider how that vegetable will fit on your fork.

We also find that a better way to serve pasta primavera means swapping the traditional strands of angel hair pasta for a short pasta, such as penne rigate, fusilli, or orecchiette. The long strands of angel hair are incompatible with chunky bites of vegetables, while the short shapes mimic the size of the trimmed vegetables and cook in just eight to 10 minutes.

• Make a garlic-lemon butter. Mash the garlic and salt into a paste with the side of your knife. The sharp flavor of the garlic is tempered, making it rounder, sweeter, and less pungent. And since you won’t be cooking the garlic — it simply melts in at the end of cooking — you won’t feel the pungent heat that you normally experience from eating raw garlic. Stir in butter and lemon zest until combined. This is the foundation of the light, lemony sauce that ties the dish together at the end.
• Cook the pasta. After sautéing shallots, add the pasta, hot water, and salt to a large pot (yes, grab a pot that you think is too large — you’ll need extra room, as the pasta expands and for the armloads of vegetables added at the end). Bring it to a boil then cook the pasta until al dente. Keep a casual eye on the pasta, stirring occasionally to make sure the noodles don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. This reduced portion of pasta cooking water is on purpose, as the starchy liquid is the base of the sauce.
• Add the vegetables. With the vegetables cut down to size, they should all cook in about two minutes. Pluck a few pieces out and taste. You’ll know the dish is ready to serve when the vegetables brighten in color and their texture is crisp-tender.
• Finish with tomatoes, cheese, and garlic-lemon butter. To keep the tomatoes intact, stir them in at the end with a handful of Parmesan cheese and the garlic-lemon butter. The butter melts into the starchy cooking liquid, marrying pasta with vegetables in a silky, buttery sauce. The pasta absorbs the light, lemony sauce as it sits, so serve right away with a sprinkling of red pepper flakes, fresh basil, and more Parmesan cheese.

This is my ode to spring — a simple springtime supper that takes full advantage of all that spring markets offer.