Pasta Primavera-this classic pasta dish is a wonderful mixture of colorful vegetables and a simple lemon Parmesan cream sauce. It is the perfect pasta recipe for spring and summer!
Pasta Primavera
Pasta Primavera is a classic pasta dish that was born in the 70’s at Le Cirque, a popular New York City restaurant. It was soon being served at restaurants all over and is still a popular pasta recipe today! Pasta Primavera is a favorite dish during the spring and summer months because it is made with lots of vegetables, a light lemon cream sauce, Parmesan cheese, and fresh herbs. It is light, refreshing, colorful, and so delicious. I am so glad this pasta dish is still popular because it is one of my favorite pasta recipes.
What Pasta Should I Use to Make Pasta Primavera?
Rumor has it the original pasta primavera recipe was made with spaghetti, but I like to use shorter pasta noodles that are about the same size as the vegetables. Easier to eat and I like shaped pasta. Penne pasta is my favorite but farfalle, rigatoni, orecchiette, and fusilli are good options. And of course you can use spaghetti, angel hair, or fettuccine, if you want to do some slurping:) You can use regular pasta, whole wheat pasta, or gluten-free pasta!
What Vegetables Are In Pasta Primavera?
Primavera means spring, so pasta primavera is usually made with lots of spring vegetables. But feel free to use your favorite vegetables or whatever vegetables you have in your garden or refrigerator. You want to use a mix of colorful, fresh vegetables, but there really are no rules. For this recipe, I used: asparagus, broccoli, bell pepper, zucchini, peas, and tomatoes. Mushrooms, yellow squash, artichoke hearts, carrots, and spinach are also good in pasta primavera. You really can’t go wrong, bring on the veggies!
Creamy Pasta Primavera
I make Pasta Primavera with a lemon cream sauce, which is pretty standard, but you can make pasta primavera without cream, but I don’t like it as much…ha! I think the lemon cream sauce with fresh Parmesan and all of the veggies is the right way to go. I mean, you are getting LOTS of veggies so the cream sauce is totally ok. Balance, right? And the cream sauce is on the lighter side, it isn’t super heavy or thick like fettuccine alfredo.
How to Make Pasta Primavera
Pasta Primavera is a simple pasta dish and makes a great meal for weeknights, entertaining, or even lunch!
- The hardest part is cutting up the vegetables and that really isn’t hard, it just takes a little time. You can cut the vegetables up a few days in advance and keep them in the refrigerator or you can cut them up the morning you are going to make the recipe so when it’s time to make dinner, you are ready to go! This is a great recipe to meal prep in advance.
- Get a big pot of water boiling and add SALT! Don’t forget, the salt adds flavor to the pasta. I add about a tablespoon of kosher salt. Cook the pasta until al dente, about 11 minutes.
- While the pasta is cooking, work on the vegetables and sauce. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the asparagus, peppers, and broccoli. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the zucchini and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until vegetables are tender, but still crisp. I add the zucchini after the other vegetables because it doesn’t take as long to cook. If your vegetables require different cooking times, that is fine, just start with the ones that take longer to cook and add the other veggies in later.
- Season vegetables with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer the vegetables to a large plate or bowl and set aside so you can make the sauce.
- Place the skillet back on the stove. Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest and vegetable broth. Simmer until the broth reduces by half, about 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
- Stir the peas into the pot with the pasta, you don’t have to cook them first. Stir in the cooked vegetables. Pour the lemon cream sauce over the pasta and vegetables and stir until well combined. Stir in the Parmesan cheese, make sure you use GOOD Parmesan cheese, not the stuff in the can:) Add the remaining tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, tomatoes, and basil. Pour the pasta primavera into a large serving bowl or dish. Garnish with parsley, extra Parmesan cheese, and crushed red pepper flakes. ENJOY!
Can I add Chicken or Shrimp?
Yes! If you want to add a protein to the pasta primavera, chicken or shrimp are good options. You can use grilled chicken, shredded rotisserie chicken, or leftover cooked chicken. Shrimp also goes great with the pasta, veggies, and cream sauce. Plus, shrimp only takes a few minutes to cook so you wouldn’t be adding a lot of extra work to get dinner on the table!
What to Serve with Pasta Primavera
Pasta Primavera is such a pretty pasta dish and is really quite filling. It could be a meal on it’s own, but if you want to make a few side dishes to serve on the side, here are a few of our favorites.
More Pasta Recipes:
Main Course
Pasta Primavera
Pasta Primavera-this classic pasta dish is a wonderful mixture of colorful vegetables and a simple lemon Parmesan cream sauce. It is the perfect pasta recipe for spring and summer!
- Prep Time
- 20 minutes
- Cook Time
- 15 minutes
- Total Time
- 35 minutes
- Cuisine
- Italian
- Servings
- 8
Ingredients
- 16 oz penne pasta
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 oz asparagus, cut into 1 ½-inch pieces
- 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1 ½-inch pieces
- 2 cups small broccoli florets
- 1 small zucchini, chopped
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 shallot, minced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Dash crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoon lemon juice, divided
- 1 cup frozen peas
- ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 ½ cups halved grape tomatoes
- ¼ cup chopped basil
- 2 tablespoons Italian parsley, for garnish
- Extra parmesan cheese, for garnish
- Crushed red pepper flakes, for garnish
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and pasta to boiling water. Cook for 11 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain well. Pour the pasta back into the pot.
- Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the asparagus, peppers, and broccoli. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the zucchini and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until vegetables are tender, but still crisp. Season vegetables with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer the vegetables to a large plate or bowl.
- Place the skillet back on the stove. Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest and vegetable broth. Simmer until the broth reduces by half, about 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
Stir the peas into the pot with the pasta. Stir in the cooked vegetables. Pour the lemon cream sauce over the pasta and vegetables and stir until well combined. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and remaining tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Gently stir in the tomatoes and basil. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste.
- Pour the pasta primavera into a large serving bowl or dish. Garnish with parsley, extra Parmesan cheese, and crushed red pepper flakes. Serve warm.
Keyword
pasta primavera
Photos by Dishing Out Health
I’m going to have to try this soon! I love making homemade spinach pasta for it! That means I don’t have it all that often.
Spinach pasta would be so good!
Maria, this looks super! Does it reheat well or should I halve the recipe if need be? Thanks in advance!
Thanks! Yes, you can reheat leftovers, we ate it the next day and it was still delicious!
Do you have a recommendation to a lower calorie alternative to the heavy cream?
You can use half and half. You can even try milk, but it won’t be as creamy.
Evaporated milk works a lot better than regular milk! They even have lactose free and almond varieties now, I use them all the time for creamy sauces!
Thanks for the tip!
Maria, thanks so very much for this recipe! My darling daughter-in-law came to my house for dinner on Friday night and I served your Pasta Primavera. It was so delicious! Made enough to send some leftovers home with her for my son who had worked late, and he loved it too! 5 stars!!!!! Can’t wait to make it with farmers market produce in a few weeks, but it was so good even with supermarket vegetables!
I am so glad you enjoyed the pasta primavera, it is one of my favorite pasta recipes!
This entire post absolutely ROCKS! Thank you for all the hard work you put into it.
Thank you for posting recipes withOUT meat! This vegetarian appreciates it! 🙂
You are so welcome! We have lots of vegetarian recipes on our site, check them out in the recipe index!
Looks amazing – excited to try!! Could this be served cold (more like a salad)?
Loved it! I cooked the veggies a little longer, because I didn’t want them to be too crunchy. But the flavors of adding the lemon to the sauce, it was fantastic! It is a bit time consuming to cut all those vegetables, but well worth it!
I served this tonight and it was delicious. I generally don’t measure when cooking, so I probably used a little more cream. I didn’t have asparagus and don’t really care for yellow peppers, so I added three baby Bella mushrooms and fresh green beans that were already blanched. I also added yellow squash. It was fantastic. I do think the next time I make this I will add a little brandy to the sauce. Thank you Maria for a fabulous recipe.
This recipie is awesome! I invited some friend for dinner one person was a vegetarian, I am a cook so I have made some veg dishes but not anything that could be served as a main. I found this recipie and although I tweeted it a bit to suit my cooking style it was so yummy the lemon was nice and bright and went so good with all the veggies!! This will defiantly go in my recipie box!!
Amazing! I made it with dried basil instead of fresh ( didn’t have any ;( ) but it was still great
Glad you liked the pasta!
Delicious and healthy pasta recipe! I didn’t add the third tablespoon of lemon juice as I thought it would make the dish too acidic. I also didn’t have broccoli on hand and used shredded carrots. It turned out well!
Very easy to prepare and super tasty even for the pickiest of eaters. An awesome weeknight meal.
Made this for our Easter dinner today. It was great! Varied the vegetables a bit. Used red pepper instead of yellow, no zucchini and added carrots and mushrooms. Used Protein + rotini.
Hi there. I’m getting ready to make this for dinner. You really don’t need to cook the frozen peas first?
No, if you cook them first they will be overcooked and mushy!
Delicious! My family devoured it. We added a few tweaks as in doubling the sauce (we love our pastas saucy) as well as using linguine and a bit more lemon juice. This dish was so fresh and we will most definitely be making it again.
One of our favorite spring recipes. Glad you liked it too!
I have a likely dumb question – do you think milk would work instead of heavy cream for the sauce? That’s all I have on hand. 🙁 Can’t wait to make this asap! Thank you!
Not a dumb question:) Yes, you can use milk, it won’t be as rich but still good:)
Thank you it was delicious! Do you think the sauce would freeze well?
It should be ok.
Can I use Greek yogurt and a little milk instead of heavy cream? I don’t have heavy cream.
Is it possible to use Greek yogurt and milk in lieu of heavy cream?
Yes! Enjoy!
What can I use to make this dairy free?
Wow!! This is a great recipe. The lemon creme sauce is light and fresh. My highly critical family loved it…couldn’t get enough of it. Requested again in the very near future. Bravo!
Can’t wait to try this! My family loves all of your recipes! Do you think I could sub full fat coconut milk instead of heavy cream?
Thanks!
Sure, the flavor will be different, but if you like coconut milk, go for it!
I made this tonight – SO delicious! Definitely going into our meal plan rotation
Yay!
Everything about this recipe is perfect! The blend and balance of the flavors of the cream, shallots, lemon, fresh vegetables…it’s all perfect!
Thank you for the effort put into sharing the details of the recipe! Bravo!
You are welcome! Glad you loved it!
Made this during covid quarantine and it was easy to make substitutions with what we had at home. So delicious!
Glad you liked the pasta!