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Prep time
15 minutes
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Cook time
20 minutes
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Serves
4 to 6
Author Notes
Classic pasta primavera celebrates spring vegetables—asparagus, fresh peas, and more—simmered in heavy cream and finished with a shower of grated Parmigiano Reggiano. This very American dish, first served at New York City’s Le Cirque in the 1970’s, can showcase different vegetables, depending on the season. In June, we like to use spring’s asparagus and fresh peas paired with the summer’s first green beans, rainbow carrots, and baby yellow squash.
Not only is pasta primavera flexible seasonally, the recipe can sing without any dairy at all, thanks to rich Planet Oat Extra Creamy Oatmilk. Garlic, flour, and olive oil are combined for a quick roux that helps the oatmilk thicken. In place of Parmigiano, nutritional yeast lends a slightly salty, umami flavor to the sauce while finely grated lemon zest adds brightness.
We didn’t just make this dish dairy-free, we made it easier, too. Some early versions of this recipe call for the vegetables to be blanched in boiling water and shocked in ice water, one at a time. Here, we add the asparagus, carrots, peas, and green beans to the cooking pasta for the last two minutes of cooking. All of the vegetables are perfectly al dente, ready to be simmered in all that luscious oatmilk sauce. Plenty of fresh basil and a squeeze of lemon juice makes this easy, creamy, and veggie-forward pasta dish perfect for any day or season.
—Anna Painter
Test Kitchen Notes
Planet Oat compensated Food52 for providing content contained in this article. —Food52
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Ingredients
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Kosher salt
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8 ounces
dried fusilli
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3
rainbow carrots, (about ½ pound) peeled and thinly sliced into half-moons
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8 ounces
asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
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8 ounces
green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
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1/2 cup
peas, fresh or frozen
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2 tablespoons
olive oil
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2
baby yellow squash (about 9 ounces), trimmed and cut half-moons
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Freshly ground pepper
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2
garlic cloves, chopped
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2 tablespoons
all-purpose flour
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2 cups
Planet Oat Extra Creamy Oatmilk
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2 teaspoons
finely grated lemon zest
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2 tablespoons
nutritional yeast, plus more for serving
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1 cup
fresh basil leaves, torn if large, divided
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Lemon wedges, for serving
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Plant-based parmesan or nutritional yeast, for serving
Directions
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Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add fusilli to the boiling water, then cook until al dente, 9 to 10 minutes. Reserve ½ cup of pasta water. For the last two minutes of cooking, add the carrots, asparagus, green beans, and peas to the pot. Drain pasta and vegetables.
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Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add summer squash, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until just tender, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and flour, then cook until garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds.
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Add Planet Oat Extra Creamy Oatmilk to the skillet, and cook over medium, stirring frequently, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest and nutritional yeast.
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Add fusilli, vegetables, ¼ cup of the pasta water, and half of the basil. Cook, stirring, until sauce coats the pasta, 1 to 2 minutes, adding more pasta water, 2 tablespoons at a time until the sauce is creamy and not too thick. Remove from heat. Squeeze two lemon wedges over the pasta, then season with salt, pepper, and more nutritional yeast, if desired. Garnish with plant-based parmesan and the remaining basil. Serve with remaining lemon wedges.
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