Good vegetables for pasta

I have some linguine, passata and garlic. I wish to add vegetables. What are some cool options that work? I mean I love asparagus but I don't know want to have to use it every time

on the side or in the sauce?

In the sauce. I've bought some artichokes now, and some heritage tomatoes. And a small but quite virulent-looking chili that I might not use. And asparagus

SUPER HELPFUL POST ALERT

i don't really do vegetables in a basic tomato sauce. would just be chill flakes and probably some tomato puree and dried oregano in with the oil at start for me.

like what is the point of a vegetable in there, what do you hope to achieve?

pasta is bland. you can add any vegetables you want to, the pasta will cooperate with any of them. I'd think in terms of how well the vegetables cooperate with each other.

The other main principle is that you need to add enough flavor so that the pasta's blandness doesn't define the dish. there's a reason that the alliums (garlic, onions, shallots), nightshades (tomato, eggplant), and pungent herbs tend to get put into pasta sauces.

broccoli

mushrooms

also broccoli

Obviously if I could get my hands on some good mushrooms that would be first pick, but most mushrooms sold in the UK are dull

If you are about to go shopping, just stand among the produce at the greengrocer, look at what's there, and imagine combining them into something tasty. This time of year you shouldn't be stuck with a limited selection of standard-issue winter vegetables.

If you are stuck with whatever is already purchased and at hand, just do the same thing with what you've got.

mushrooms is the only answer.

maybe roasted aubergine

um pasta is delish u just need to add enough salt to the water you boil it in

i respect jim's purezza but you should buy the really high quality imported italian tomato cans (i do 1 diced 1 pureed ymmv) fresh basil and reggiano if you go that route

i like veggie pasta sauce bc you can offload old veg that's beyond salad. also gets lots of protein & fibre into what's otherwise just a plate of carbs. even 'dull' mushrooms are great in sauce imo (tbh i wouldn't even waste good mushrooms in a pasta cause) just chop em up really small and fry it with your garlic. also spinach, zucchini, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes. you can also do the old carrots and celery. another thing i like to do is buy some cherry tomatoes and fry em on the pan until they're blackened and collapse. oh and egglant (d'uh) chop it up p small, salt heavily and leave in a strainer for 30 mins then squeeze out excess water, otherwise it releases all its liquid into your sauce making it watery

you could get a bunch of bell peppers and an onion and make peperonata - though linguine not really the ideal pasta for that

pasta is delish u just need to add enough salt to the water you boil it in

if he wants to bring the pasta forward as a flavor, then the sauce had better be very simple and delicate, with some butter included, very mild vegetables, a light hand with the herbs. fresh homemade pasta, or a commercial small-batch equivalent to homemade.

plenty of good advice here. might start by boiling up the artichokes. might even cook the pasta in the artichoke water...

careful to core your artichoke right or you'll end up with a mouthful of nettles, recommend watching a tutorial on youtube if you haven't done it b4

i made this w some artichoke i had last week, magnifico https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/10/carciofi-alla-romana-roman-italian-braised-artichoke-recipe.html

^ flopson makes a great point.

Tbh I am happy with tomato and asparagus pasta every single time.

And broccoli

ditch the tomatoes, go courgette / mint / lemon / parmesan

and your garlic of course

yellow crookneck squash

When I am trying to get more veggies in I usually do broccoli or spinach. Take a large amount of broccoli and chop chop it up until it's little bits, you barely realize it's broccoli. Not relly a veg but I also like capers and I bake an egg on top a lot.

I usually don't put vegetables in my tomato sauces other than herbs. I prefer to have them as a side dish so I can make sure they cook properly and are seasoned well. (If I'm making pasta without a tomato sauce, different story.)

Leafy greens are always good, especially with mushrooms (even boring ones). One of my favorite heretical choices is gai lan.

don't add anything to tomato sauce. sauteed eggplant is a good mix-in. if you want pasta with a green veg just go olive oil/garlic/parmesan.

i like chard a lot for that

Roast your non-leafy veggies before you add em, time permitting

Don't forget to add some dang lemon juice to your tomatoless pastas.

Also, consider adding uncooked greens at the end, like parsley, arugula, mizuna...

i don’t find a huge diff between mix-in and add-in

however, really not crazy about brocc in my sauce

yeah get that brocc out my sugo

For some weird reason I don't like veggies as a side to pasta. I think because I am sometimes lazy and just eat out of the pot if it's just me.

I like to toss arugula into hot pasta & the Marcella Hazan tomato sauce.

the problem with soliciting advice from faceless hordes is you don't know how to weight the advice. i am an aggressively amateur, imprecise cook, not esp good despite compliments to the contrary, tho doubtless still better than a good chunk of the rubes itt and i say the following:

i) mushrooms aren't vegetables

ii) the marcella hazan method is tomato sauce as far as I'm concerned

iii) penne con stracotto di verdure

1. everyone knows this but it's a pedantic point like "tomato" is a fruit that adds nothing to the discussion.
2. there's a huge variety of different types of tomato sauce for a variety of occasions, sometimes you want one where the tomatoes are hardly cooked at all, at other times you want something that's been cooked forever etc. sometimes you want fresh tomatoes, sometimes you want tinned san marzanos. you may want a different consistency.
3. this is not a famous dish so you might want to explain what it is. penne with overcooked vegetables isn't hugely appealing a name

well for 3 i've just googled it and the only recipe of this name on the internet is this one https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/06/how-to-make-pasta-blanched-veg.html

When I am trying to get more veggies in I usually do broccoli or spinach.

This. Good basic sauce I do is sautee garlic then add chopped broc, a dash of water or water/stock and steam it for 5 mins. Then toss spag with pesto and the simmered broc bits.

being a purist about pasta sauce is dumb imo. you’re not marcella hazan and she would vom at the faintest whiff of any of our feeble attempts. the real takeaway from that kind of authentic italian cuisine is the focus on high quality ingredients and simple recipes. i don’t like the rigid adherence to strict rules; ive made killer sauces with whatever was wilting in my crisper at the time

otm. Older italian women I speak to would always say "shit dont bother with fresh tomatoes, canned are fine, what are you, someone with time to peel tomatoes"

"essentials of classic italian cooking," which i'm holding as we speak, contains at least 9 tomato sauce recipes. marcella wasn't an oracle and she certainly wasn't a snob. if there's a theme to her recipes it's to be thoughtful in what you include and that exclusions are just as important as inclusions.

penne with overcooked vegetables isn't hugely appealing a name

i thought this was called "pasta primavera"
it has unusually bad connotations when you think about those gross frozen bag meals and/or if you are me and it reminds you of the stalker who offered you pasta primavera

Yeah, I used to do the scarpetta recipe with fresh tomatoes but canned has much better time/reward. Also, I would just eat a block of cheese melted onto pasta if I could, the reason I add veggies is for health not because I get boners about broccoli or spinach in pasta.

there are a lot of contexts in which you can just use a lot of vegetables interchangeably but mushrooms and tomatoes are no good for these purposes. mushrooms are functionally closer to meat than veg in a lot of dishes. I recall a prissy customer from my greengrocing days whose child went to get some mushrooms and he said "no, we don't want mushrooms, they're fungus", creasing his face in disgust. they are their own glorious kingdom, the first life forms on dry land, and they deserve respect/fear. vegetables are latecomers.

I don't have a lot of occasions for tomato sauce really. pasta & occasionally bruschetta. sometimes with pizza but I never feel good about home-cooked pizza. I use tomatoes in other sauces but they're not Tomato Sauce. the buttery slow-cooked richness is my platonic ideal which all variations are worked out in relation to. sometimes I like garlic, sometimes herbs, and v often wine.

the overcooked veg is amazing the way my brother cooks it but I have yet to get it to come out so well so don't really feel qualified to explain it. if we're talking pasta and veg it seems worthy of discussion & is the simplest way to go

congrats on working google out jim, you're an inspiration

this recipe is great:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/22/linguine-with-courgettes-egg-and-parmesan-recipe-rachel-roddy-a-kitchen-in-rome

and, in fact, Rachel Roddy writes quite a lot about Roman Recipes for pasta and vegetables in her excellent book, Five Quarters. In that courgette recipe it's important to let the pasta cool more before you put it back in the pan to add the eggs (don't put heat under the pan).

or this:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jun/05/rachel-roddy-recipe-fusilli-pepper-olive-sauce

these are great too:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/29/spaghetti-with-courgette-mint-pecorino-recipe-rachel-roddy-a-kitchen-in-rome
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/13/pasta-with-mushrooms-and-herbs-recipe-rachel-roddy-a-kitchen-in-rome

RR's recipes are at most, slightly updated Roman or Sicilian recipes or stricly R or S recipes so saying no veg in my pasta is absurd.

par-steam some broccoli and sauté it with garlic and spinach

Xps i think using artichoke water to boil noodles would be a mistake. Gonna be somewhat bitter. Not a flav profile u want imo

This ain't a botany course. For culinary purposes mush are a veg. So are tomatoes. Broccoli is a flower from the same genus as kale cabbage kohlrabi. Eggplant is a berry. Botanically all fruit but pointless to not consider a veg.when cooking. Sry 4 rant

Anyway I often add a green veg ( broccoli cauli kale) to the boiling pasta for the last minute to blanch then add the lot to sauce in a pan. If it's frugula I put it in colander and it wilts when pasta drains.

Eating a sun dried tomato salad from my work canteen and just finished reading this article.

My mum makes a classic sun dried tomato pasta dish that just tastes of home, but I didn't ever realise that they had gone in and out of fashion quite so quickly.