Well: Spring Pasta Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times Whole grain pasta with mushrooms

To make a quick meal with spring vegetables, try one of these new pasta dishes from Recipes for Health columnist Martha Rose Shulman. She writes:

The beautiful, sweet vegetables of spring ? artichokes and peas, favas and tender young asparagus, spring garlic and sweet spring onions ? come and go so quickly that I find myself impulse buying at the market and using them up in the simplest of dishes. They beg nothing more than pasta, and that’s a good thing because many of these vegetables are labor-intensive. It’s worth the time it takes to shell the peas, to free the heart of the artichoke from its leaves, to shell and skin favas. Then little more is required than a quick sauté or simmer with aromatics. You can always embellish, though, as I am doing this week with some recipes, with a pesto or, in the case of a baked orzo pastitsio with artichokes and peas, a béchamel.

In most of this week’s recipes, a ladleful of the cooking water from the pasta ? which in many cases has also been used to blanch some of the vegetables ? stands in for a sauce. A small amount of this water, which has become starchy from the pasta, adds just enough moisture and body to the vegetable mix so that when you toss it with the pasta you’ll get a moist, inviting combination that can be finished with cheese or not.

Here are five new ways to spring into pasta.

Orzo With Peas and Parsley Pesto: This is like a pasta version of the classic rice and peas risotto, risi e bisi.

Baked Orzo With Artichokes and Peas: A light yet comforting Greek-inspired dish enriched with béchamel.

Farfalle With Artichokes, Peas, Favas and Onions: The vegetable ragout is a simplified version of a classic Sicilian spring stew.

Penne With Peas, Pea Greens and Parmesan: A beautiful springtime pasta that makes the most of the pea plant.

Whole-Grain Pasta With Mushrooms, Asparagus and Favas: This dish has heft and depth, but still showcases the delicate flavors of spring.

Martha Rose Shulman on healthful cooking.

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Recipes for Health: Spicy Egyptian Dukkah — Recipes for Health

1/2 cup chickpea flour

1/4 cup lightly toasted unsalted peanuts

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

2 teaspoons caraway seeds

2 teaspoons lightly toasted dill seeds (optional)

1 tablespoon lightly toasted sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or coarse sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons sumac

1. In a heavy frying pan over medium-high heat, toast the chickpea flour, stirring constantly or shaking the pan, just until it begins to smell toasty and darken slightly. Transfer immediately to a bowl.

2. Finely chop the peanuts and add to the bowl with the chickpea flour.

3. One at a time, heat the coriander seeds, caraway seeds, dill seeds and sesame seeds in a small skillet over medium-high heat, shaking the pan or stirring constantly, just until each is fragrant and beginning to smell toasty. Remove from the pan and allow to cool completely.

4. Working in batches, combine the coriander seeds, caraway seeds and dill seeds in a spice mill and grind to a powder. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the sesame seeds, salt, cayenne and sumac.

Variation: You can pulse the sesame seeds to partly grind, but be careful: In my experience, it is a little too easy to grind sesame seeds to paste.

Yield: 1 cup

Nutritional information per teaspoon: 10 calories; 1 gram fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 0 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 1 gram carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 21 milligrams sodium; 1 gram protein.

Dukkah-Dusted Sand Dabs

Cook these delicate fish in 2 batches. They cook in about 3 minutes.

1 1/2 pounds sand dabs (about 8 sand dabs)

1/2 cup Egyptian dukkah

2 tablespoons canola or grapeseed oil

Juice of 1 large lemon

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Note: Substitute flounder or sole for the sand dabs if you can’t get them.

1. Have all of your ingredients ready by the stove. Heat a heavy cast-iron or nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Season the fish fillets if desired. Place the dukkah on a baking sheet and lightly dredge the fish fillets in it. When the pan is very hot, add 1 tablespoon of the canola or grapeseed oil, and when it is rippling, just below smoking, add as many fish fillets as can comfortably fit into the pan without crowding it too much. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, until browned, then turn over and cook another 1 1/2 to 2 minutes (depending on the size of the fish), or until the fish is nicely browned on both sides. Remove to a warm platter. Repeat with the next batch of fish, until all of it has been cooked. Douse with the lemon juice, sprinkle on the parsley and serve.

Yield: 4 servings

Advance preparation: You can dust the fish and have it ready to fry several hours ahead of time. Place on a rack over a sheet pan and keep uncovered in the refrigerator.

Nutritional information per serving (flounder was used for nutritional information; it is nutritionally similar to sole): 279 calories; 13 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 82 milligrams cholesterol; 6 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 265 milligrams sodium; 35 gram protein.

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

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