Jessica is always looking for more ways to incorporate more vegetables into her life, but without making a salad.

“I want something that feels like a meal, something that feels a little decadent and it can still be made with veggies,” she explained.

So, she cooked up with veggie-filled pasta primavera with a cream sauce.

“The way I do cream sauce is a cheat, I use cream cheese and I melt it. I add some parmesan, some lemon and a ton of veggies,” she revealed.

The great thing about a pasta primavera is you can add any vegetable you like!

This segment of California Cooking aired on Episode 172.

SPRING PASTA PRIMAVERA

Ingredients:

Thinly cut shallots

1- 2 cloves of garlic

Yellow pepper chopped

Asparagus cut into small pieces

Handful of Green beans cut into small pieces

2 ears of corn

Shredded carrots

Frozen peas

Block of cream cheese.

1 lemon

Parmesan Cheese

Basil

Rigatoni

Instructions:

• Trim ends off the asparagus.  Place the asparagus and green beans in boiling water with salt for 1 minute and then add them to an ice bath so they’ll stay green.
• Cut your asparagus, green beans, yellow pepper, shallots and cut corn off the cob.
• Cook your rigatoni according to the instructions on the box.
• Sautee shallots in a little bit of olive oil and a dash of salt.
• Grate garlic.
• Add ½ block of cream cheese, lower heat and let melt.  Add 1/2 cup of pasta water.
• Add more cream cheese and 1/2 cup more of pasta water.
• Add all your veggies to the sauce: asparagus, green beans, yellow pepper, corn, carrots and peas.
• Add pasta directly into the sauce, add ¼ cup parmesan cheese and mix them all together. Add more pasta water if needed.
• Top with fresh basil, parmesan cheese and lemon zest.
• Enjoy!!