I’m trying to develop a good repertoire of dishes to feed Francis, now age 1¾. We’re not doing family dinners yet, simply due to his 7pm bedtime (when does that become more reasonable?), and sometimes he likes the leftovers of what we eat, but we have decades of palate-expansion experience on him.
This pasta dish makes me pretty happy — it’s got veggies in it, plenty of ricotta for extra deliciousness, and is super-simple to make. The amounts below generate at least 2-3 servings for him.
This is the second post out of only 7 that uses ditalini (the other being pasta e ceci). As I discuss there, this pasta is trivial to find at Waitrose in the UK, but surprisingly hard to come by over in the US (or, at least in Seattle). The best sources I’ve found for it are Target (including online) and Safeway (under the name “salad macaroni”). Any pasta shape works here — I’d try elbow macaroni if I couldn’t find this one — but this small shape is especially fun, and also has the benefit of being toddler-bite-sized.
The only magic going on here is the pasta water. Thanks to the starch in it, it acts as a binding and emulsifying agent for your sauce, and thins out the ricotta into a perfect texture. (Of course, there are also skeptics out there. All I know is that I’ve already got a pot of perfectly good water on the stove, so I use that and it works.)
PrintCheesy Toddler Pasta with Veggies
This cheesy, toddler-friendly pasta comes together in the time it takes to cook pasta. It’s delicious enough that I’d happily eat it for dinner, too.
- Prep Time: 1 minute
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 11 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 2 oz. ditalini or other pasta
- 2 T butter
- 4 oz. frozen mixed veg (or frozen peas, or fresh veg)
- 1 t rosemary
- 1/3 – 1/2 C ricotta
- Pasta water to thin
Instructions
- Put a small pot of water on to boil, and salt it.
- Weigh out your pasta (or just eyeball it — a standard bag is 16 oz., so you’re going for 1/8 of that), and put it in the boiling water. Cook as long as it says on the package (mine is 8-9 minutes, and really does take that entire time, despite being so small).
- Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small sauté pan over medium heat. Add the frozen veg and rosemary. Cook these over medium heat while the pasta cooks. If they start to brown too much, remove from the heat.
- Before draining the pasta, dip a cup into the pot to get some pasta water (or just drain the pasta over a bowl or measuring cup to catch the water).
- Drain the pasta, and put it in the pan with the veggies. Add the ricotta (1/3 C is probably enough, but 1/2 C makes it lusciously cheesy), and stir. You’ll likely want to thin it out with at least some pasta water — start small, maybe 2 T or so, and go from there. The goal is to have it saucy, but not too thin.
Notes
You can use any vegetable, or veggie mix, you want. Ditto the pasta — Francis just likes the small pasta because it’s already in kid-bite-sized pieces.
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