An easy 6 ingredient dish that comes together in under 30 minutes and is delicious. Pasta piselli (pasta and peas) is a perfect meal for spring.
I have been eating this dish ever since I was little. My grandma, Zucchi, as we call her always makes us pasta piselli. The pasta is sweet from the baby peas and sweet onion. They cook together and create so much flavor. Combined with the carby goodness of pasta to make one delicious dish. As with any Italian recipe there are different ways to make it particular to each region. My family comes from Naples and this is a pretty popular dish there. This recipe is how Zucchi makes it, so if your version differs it’s okay, all families make food differently.
This pasta dish only has 6 ingredients if you make it our way: pasta, peas, onion, olive oil, salt, and organic sugar. You will also need the liquid reserved from the can of peas and starchy pasta water. Although I do not count those ingredients since its just by-products. So why no garlic? Honestly, I am not really sure and that’s a great question, but I think the sweetness of the onion and peas work really well together to create an extremely flavorful dish.
Pasta Choice
Now…before my other Italians come from me ditalini would be the typical pasta choice. However, for the sake of our food photography and making an aesthetic dish I went with tagliatelle. You can really use any pasta you like. The smaller shape works well here due to the fact that the peas are small so it is easier to scoop up equal parts peas and pasta. So just let it be known Zucchi would make this with ditalini.
Soupy or Not Soupy
This is another area where I feel like people may have split opinions. Zucchi likes to make hers a little more liquidy so it is a bit more soup-like I made mine less liquidy so it is more like pasta in a dish. It ultimately comes down to personal preference. If you want it a bit more soup like go for it by adding in a little extra liquid from the peas and pasta water and cooking for less amount of time. Either way the flavor is there and that’s what matters! If you are gluten free definitely free free to use a gluten free pasta like Banza!
Tips for Making this Dish
While this dish is really easy to make there a few things you need to do along the way to ensure the best possible flavor and result.
- Low and slow wins the race. A lot of the flavor comes from the slow cooking of the onions, they should be barely cooking. Just slightly fizzling in the pan, do not burn them or make any color on them.
- Vidalia onion. It is my favorite onion, it is very sweet and flavorful but they aren’t always in season or easy to find so if you can’t just make sure you find a sweet onion. The less round they are the better, the fatter squatter onions are sweeter.
- Save your starchy pasta water. This helps to create a bit more of a sauce, helps the flavors to adhere to the pasta better as well.
- The best peas are the sweet baby peas that come in the can. Zucchi says the best ones are by Le Sueur.
- I personally like light olive oil for this as it has a less strong taste and that is just what I prefer.
Can you use frozen peas?
You can use frozen peas for this however, I highly suggest using the canned peas as you do want the liquid. If you use frozen peas you may want to add a touch more sugar and salt to the recipe and you will need to preserve ⅔ cup of the starchy pasta water.
Why organic cane sugar?
Some sugar is processed with bone char so it just best to always go with an organic sugar. If you are trying to watch your sugar in take you can skip it or reduce to a ¼ teaspoon.
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Pasta Piselli
Ingredients
- ⅓ sweet onion about 75g
- 5 ounces pasta 144g
- ½ cup sweet baby peas 125g, drained
- ½ teaspoon organic cane sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup liquid from can of peas 180ml
- ⅓ cup starchy pasta water 180ml
Instructions
- In a medium frypan add the oil and onions. Sauté over very very low heat for 8 minutes. The onions should be lightly fragrant and translucent. Do not let them get golden or brown.
- Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Then cook pasta to your preference.
- Once the onions have bene sautéing for 8 minutes, add peas, the liquid from the peas, salt, and sugar.
- Raise heat to medium low and cook for another 5 minutes until most of the liquid has cooked off.
- Once the pasta is done preserve ⅓ cup of the pasta water.
- Place the cooked pasta in the pan along with the starchy water and toss to mix. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes on low heat until liquid has been mostly absorbed by pasta, but there should still be some left in the pan for a little bit of sauciness and flavor.
- Serve with vegan parmesan cheese if desired and a bit of fresh basil.
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