pasta

Pumpkins aren't just for carving or baking into a sweet pie. Celebrate the season with a pasta dish that's comforting, creamy, and full of flavorful pumpkin. And pumpkin is packed with healthy carotenoids and high in protein and vitamin A. Instead of covering up the pumpkin, enhance the flavor with a dash of Italian seasoning and keep the calories low by using milk instead of cream in this tasty pasta bake. Invite your tot into the kitchen to help mix, stir, and sprinkle, making this dish even more special.

Keep reading for the easy directions.

Penne alla vodka is an Italian staple that heavily lays on the cream and calories. After years of searching for a healthier alternative that actually tastes good, this recipe seemed too good to be true. Even without the booze and significantly less dairy thrown into the pot, this sauce brings the same tangy flavor and comforting texture that are indicative of the original. Just one bite will make you a believer.

Keep reading to learn how to create this penne alla "not-ka."

If your family loves pizza night, this easy stuffed shells recipe is a fun twist on your favorite pie. Invite your tot into the kitchen to help chop the ingredients, and add in her favorite toppings to encourage basic culinary skills. Ready in less than 30 minutes, this dish makes a great weeknight dinner.

Keep reading for the easy recipe.

Pesto is a fun way to sneak veggies into a child's diet without them ever suspecting that what they're eating is healthy. For this flavorful pesto, we use broccoli as the base and leave out the pine nuts to make it safe for kids with allergies. One cup of broccoli contains the recommended daily amount of vitamin C boosting the body's immune system and helping to fight off the common cold, and is also packed with potassium, which benefits the development of your growing tot's nervous system. With a pop of fresh basil and lots of Parmesan cheese, this dish has a mild flavor that won't have kids turning up their noses.

Keep reading for the delicious directions.

A big bowl of creamy pasta sure hits the spot, but neither kids nor grown-ups need all those calories. Ditch the heavy cream for healthy plain yogurt, which makes a savory kid-friendly pasta dinner that's also easy on the waistline. This spin on the classic dish only requires a few ingredients and takes just minutes to make. Serve with broiled chicken cutlets or your family's favorite Italian sausage, and dinner is served! This recipe is so easy your lil one can help measure and stir.

Keep reading for the healthy recipe.

Our tasty and easy Dinnertime Crunch series continues with celebrity chefs and restaurateurs sharing their favorite 30-minute weeknight dinners that help Mom and Dad spend more time with the kids each night. Today's recipe comes from Melissa d'Arabian, host of the Food Network's Ten Dollar Dinners and author of Ten Dollar Dinners: 140 Recipes and Tips to Elevate Simple, Fresh Meals Any Night of the Week.

With four daughters running around her home, Melissa d'Arabian knows about the chaos that can occur at dinnertime. The Food Network host and author of Ten Dollar Dinners also knows that busy moms can't always remember what's hiding in the corners of the refrigerator. That's how she came up with "Crisper Drawer Pasta," a quick and productive weeknight meal — the whole recipe can be made in 30 minutes — that helps use up everything in the crisper drawer.

"The most expensive food is the one you have to throw away because you forgot to use it," Melissa says. "Once a week, be sure to take a quick peek into your crisper drawer to take stock of veggies and herbs. My two favorite ways to use the odds and ends from the crisper drawer is to make either an anything-goes pasta or a kitchen-sink–style soup (also in the book!). This is a plug-and-play recipe, meaning you can use any of the vegetables you have in the house simply by following the parameters given."

Keep reading to get Melissa's recipe.

From Ten Dollar Dinners. Copyright © 2012 by Melissa d'Arabian. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc.

Crisper Drawer Pasta

Information

Category

Main Dishes, Pasta

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small red or yellow onion, finely chopped
½ teaspoon dried herbs, such as basil, marjoram, oregano, thyme, plus a squeeze of lemon juice, or herbes de Provence
2 garlic cloves, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 to 2 cups soft vegetables or leafy greens (sliced bell peppers, corn, chopped and salted eggplant, escarole sliced crosswise, sliced fennel, sliced mushrooms, peas, chopped spinach, chopped Swiss chard)
Kosher salt
14.5-ounce box pasta
1 to 2 cups cut-up hard vegetables (chopped beets, carrots, celery, zucchini, green beans; broccoli or cauliflower florets)
2 tablespoons sour cream
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
1 tablespoon finely chopped aromatics or fresh herbs (basil, chives, crushed red pepper flakes, dill, fennel fronds, flat-leaf parsley, lemon zest, scallions, tarragon)

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 3 minutes. Stir in the dried herbs and the garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute, and then stir in the soft vegetables or leafy greens and ½ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the greens are wilted, 30 seconds to 4 minutes, stirring often. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook for 3 minutes. Add the hard vegetables and continue to cook according to the package instructions until the pasta is al dente. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta and vegetables and return them to the pot. Stir the sour cream and the remaining ½ teaspoon salt into the pasta, then add ½ cup of the Parmesan, the aromatics, and ¼ cup of the pasta water. Stir to combine, add the cooked soft vegetables or leafy greens, and add more pasta water if needed. Serve with more Parmesan on the side.

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Not to be a downer, but I've become acutely aware that we only have a few more weeks of the Summer produce season until next year. Every time I smell a buttery, ripe peach, I cry a little inside, then I buy more peaches than I need. The same goes with basil; I'm pretty sure I have more than two bunches of basil in my refrigerator, in the event of an emergency. And each time I think of my next meal, I wonder if it can't be a dish that incorporates the sweet-tart jelly insides of a ripe tomato.

It's been easy to try (and fall for) tomatoes in many iterations, from Southeast Asian salad to pickled farm-stand tomatoes. But I'm convinced that my latest discovery, fusilli with no-cook tomato sauce, has to be the greatest.

Keep reading for the recipe.

We fell for laid-back single mom and chef Antonia Lofaso on Top Chef, but we're doubly in love after the release of her first book, The Busy Mom's Cookbook, this month. Pick up a copy to score 100 practical, delicious recipes and tons of tips to get your kids excited about new foods. "Having my daughter in the kitchen has made her a more adventurous eater, but it's also been about getting her to the supermarket and letting her pick out her own fruits and vegetables," Antonia told us. "Let your kids explore — even if they pick up a pile of beets and don't know what they are. Before you know it, you'll have a kid who loves to eat beets and brussels sprouts!"

Antonia shared a few of her favorite recipes with us (check out her best blueberry muffins recipe and caramel-almond popcorn recipe), but we're most excited about her go-to Sicilian broccoli pasta, which you can whip up in a mere 20 minutes!

"My grandma made me for me all the time, and I loved it," Antonio says. "I know it sounds crazy that a kid could actually love broccoli, but I did! It's all about using roasted broccoli, which you can make the night before. Roasting gives the broccoli this great color and caramelization; it has a nutty, warming quality to it, and even picky kids love it!" And the best part: because the broccoli can be made in advance, you can get this filling, healthful dish on the table in no time flat!

Get the recipe after the jump!