I spent a rainy day last week preparing three of my favorite pastas for the freezer. Each one providing a unique level of comfort and a nourishing balance of protein, carb, and fiber. Most importantly, they keep in the freezer and reheat incredibly well! But even if you have no plans on meal prepping, these pasta are wonderful comfort dinners to enjoy fresh!
Creamy Tomato Rigatoni with Tiny Turkey and Spinach Meatballs
Miso Tuna Noodle Casserole
Chrysanthemum Pesto Pasta with Sriracha Chicken
These are all pastas I’ve made on repeat throughout my pregnancy and well before. This is finally a great opportunity to share them with you! All three recipes can be found below for paid subscribers!
One adjustment I’ve made recently has been making the pastas with Rummo’s Maxima protein pasta. This is not sponsored, but actually happily inspired by my GDM diagnosis. Rummo has been our favorite grocery store brand pasta for many years. After trying their protein pasta, which is also very high in fiber, I can confirm that this version is still excellent and pretty indiscernible from their regular dried pasta. But for all these recipes, obviously you can use whatever pasta you love most!
Creamy Tomato Rigatoni with Tiny Turkey and Spinach Meatballs
Essentially a vodka pasta but without the vodka. The creamy tomato sauce has a little more body thanks to the addition of crushed tomatoes, which also lends a natural sweetness and freshness that brightens up the otherwise hearty dish. It’s loaded with lots of tiny turkey meatballs that are flecked with spinach and made extra tasty with parmesan. Since the meatballs are so small I like to cook them just under the broiler for a few minutes until they are browned and cooked through. It’s so unbelievably easy. I didn’t have many pregnancy cravings but this pasta was one of them!
Miso Tuna Noodle Casserole
I can’t escape my midwestern roots! I grew up on Stouffer’s tuna noodle casserole and the nostalgia of those flavors still have a tight grip on my heart. I’ve since perfected my own version of tuna noodle casserole that feels just as nostalgic but omits the need for a can of condensed soup and leans heavier on the vegetables and sneaks in some extra protein. We got chunks of tuna, celery, mushrooms, peas, and onions swimming in a creamy sauce that is fortified with miso, cottage cheese, and a touch of heavy cream for a full-bodied and full-flavored sauce that grips lusciously onto each noodle. The casserole is topped with melty cheese and toasted panko for texture and soul. Absolutely cannot wait to eat this.
Chrysanthemum Pesto Pasta with Sriracha Chicken
Reuben and I are one week away from our 12 year dating anniversary and this pasta brings me back to our early days running around San Francisco together, specifically grabbing a chicken pesto sandwich from The Good Life in Bernal. Reuben would always proceed to dose that thing in so much sriracha that it was almost inedible to me. We ate those sandwiches so much that the flavors of pesto and sriracha are now forever engrained in my brain with the start of our relationship… or young love… something like that.
I shared the recipe for the chrysanthemum pesto and how to make a creamy vibrant pasta with here two years ago and I still love it. I decided to grow some chrysanthemum greens for the first time and when I went to go harvest it last week I had just enough to make one batch of pesto! Meant to be!
