Creamy White Bean Pasta Primavera with Lemon Green Salad
505 cal · 21g protein · 70g carbs · 15g fat
Toddler tip: This version is a win for her — the sauce is creamy and mild, and it actually clings to the noodles. Set aside a scoop of saucy pasta with a few soft zucchini coins and a sprinkle of Parmesan before the last of the lemon juice and the black pepper go in.
Low-carb fork: Take half the pasta you'd normally take and load the plate with the zucchini, squash, and beans instead — the bean sauce coats the vegetables just as well as it coats the noodles, so it doesn't taste like a smaller portion.
Ingredients
Creamy White Bean Sauce
- 1 can (15 oz)cannellini or great northern beans, drained and rinsed — HALF gets blended into the sauce, half stays whole
- 1 clovegarlic, peeled and left whole (blanched in the pasta water, then blended)
- ½ cupParmesan, finely grated — added at the pan, NOT in the blender (plus more for the table)
- 1lemon, zested and juiced (all of its juice goes into the sauce)
- 1 tbspolive oil, for the sauce
- about 2 cupsreserved starchy pasta water (½ cup goes in the blender, the rest loosens the sauce at the end)
Pasta & Vegetables
- 12 ozpenne or fusilli
- 2 tbspolive oil
- 2 clovesgarlic, sliced thin
- 2 mediumzucchini, cut into half-moons
- 2 mediumyellow squash, cut into half-moons
- 1red bell pepper, sliced thin
- 1 cupcherry tomatoes, halved
- ¼ cupfresh basil, torn
- to tastekosher salt and black pepper
Lemon Green Salad
- 5 ozbutter lettuce, romaine, or arugula — NOT spring mix, because nearly every spring-mix blend has baby spinach in it
- 2 tbspolive oil
- 1 tbsplemon juice (from a second lemon — the sauce uses all of the first one)
- 1 tspDijon mustard
- to tastekosher salt
Instructions
1Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil and cook the pasta to al dente. Drop the whole peeled garlic clove into the water with the pasta and fish it out after 2 min — a raw clove blended into an uncooked sauce is harsh enough to bulldoze everything else, and 2 minutes in the water fixes it completely. Before draining, scoop out a full 2 cups of the pasta water; you need it for the sauce, so set a mug in the colander now so you don't forget.
2Make the sauce while the pasta cooks. Put HALF the beans, the blanched garlic clove, the lemon zest (hold back a pinch for the table), half the lemon juice, the 1 tbsp olive oil, and ½ cup of the hot pasta water in a blender. Fill it no more than halfway and leave the center cap out with a towel over the top — hot liquid builds steam and will pop a sealed lid. Blend 45–60 seconds until it is completely smooth and pourable, like cream, with no grit left; add more pasta water a splash at a time if it's too thick to pour. Leave the Parmesan OUT of the blender: hot water plus hard cheese in a blender turns stringy and grainy. It goes in at the pan instead, where the starch melts it smooth. (No blender? An immersion blender in a deep jar or a food processor both work. A fork does not — the whole point is that it goes completely smooth.)
3Heat the 2 tbsp olive oil in your largest skillet over medium-high. Add the zucchini, yellow squash, and bell pepper and spread them out — if the pan is packed, do the squash in two batches or they'll steam grey instead of browning. Sauté 5–6 min, stirring only every minute or so, until they're browned at the edges but still have bite. Do NOT salt them until they're browned: salt early pulls the water out and you lose all the color.
4Add the sliced garlic and cherry tomatoes and cook 2 min more, just until the tomatoes slump and the garlic smells sweet. Stir in the remaining whole beans to warm through.
5While the vegetables cook, make the salad dressing: whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon, and a pinch of salt in the bottom of a serving bowl and pile the greens on top — don't toss until you sit down.
6Drain the pasta and return it to its own empty pot off the heat — the skillet will not hold 12 oz of pasta plus all those vegetables. Scrape the vegetables and beans in on top, pour the blended bean sauce over, and add the Parmesan. Toss constantly over LOW heat for 1–2 minutes until the cheese melts in and every noodle is coated, loosening with more pasta water as needed; it thickens fast off the heat. Keep it low — a hard boil or a ripping-hot pan is what makes the cheese go grainy.
7Off the heat, stir in the remaining lemon juice and season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Finish with the torn basil and the pinch of lemon zest you held back, toss the salad, and serve with extra Parmesan at the table. (Leftovers: the bean sauce sets up firm in the fridge — reheat with a good splash of water or milk and it loosens right back up.)