5 Pasta Sauce recipes that you can make in under 10 mins.

I’m all about that pasta at the moment, or rather, the kids are. Specifically Reuben. He literally can’t get enough and asks me every day if he is having pasta for tea. He has a happy dance if the answer is yes. Really.

Sadly, Reuben’s favourite type of pasta is plain pasta with butter, which isn’t exactly great for filling him full of vitamins (though I will take it over his secondary choice of chicken nuggets any day.) I’ve been playing around with different types of pasta sauces to try and tempt him to enjoy his favourite dish with a bit more nutrition.

Here are 5 pasta sauce recipes for you to try that you can make in less than 10 minutes… Which is just enough time for your pasta to cook! Any pasta type will work with these, I just use whatever I have in at the time.

1. Red Pesto & Mozzarella (2 adults or 4 small children)

• 1 heaped teaspoon red pesto
• 1 beef or vegetable stock cube
• 1 ball of mozzarella in a bag, torn into pieces
• 150ml boiling water
• 2 tablespoons extra thick double cream

Mix the cream, pesto, water and stock cube together. Add to the cooked pasta and stir until thickened. Lastly add in the torn mozzarella and stir until melted. The boys LOVED that this was full of stringy cheese, and Roo wolfed it down. There is plenty of protein in here, and if you wanted to add in some veg, it would be easy to do with peas, finely chopped peppers or grated carrot.

2. Pesto, ham and pea

• 1 tablespoon pesto
• 100g ham, chopped
• Handful of frozen peas
• Sprinkle of Parmesan cheese

This is insanely easy – cook your pasta, stir in the pesto, peas and ham. Heat through until the peas are soft. Serve with the sprinkle of cheese on top.

Simple, easy and packed with flavour. If you want a veggie version, omit the ham. You could also add green beans to pack it out a bit.

3. Hidden veggie sauce

• 1 carrot, finely grated
• 1 pepper, finely chopped
• 1 courgette, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 1 tsp sugar
• Dash of balsamic vinegar
• Basil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the garlic and onions for 2 mins, then add the carrot, courgette and pepper. Cook for another 5 mins. Then add the tinned tomatoes. Bring to simmer and add the sugar, seasoning and balsamic. Cook for 2-3 mins, then add to a blender. The sauce will blend up, and all veg will be hidden. If it’s a bit thick, you can thin it with a touch of stock. Do not use water as it loses some of the flavour. You can either tear up the basil, add it and blend or chop it roughly. This also makes a loooovely pizza sauce base 🙂

4. Red pesto & cream cheese

• 1 tablespoon red pesto (or if you are feeling fun and our kids will like it, change this to chilli pesto)
• 100g cream cheese

Mix the red pesto into the cream cheese, add to your cooked pasta and heat. You could serve this one cold if you like – it’s very adaptable and goes down really well with everyone.

5.) Salmon & broccoli pasta

• 1 fillet of salmon, skinned and cubed
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 6-8 florets of broccoli
• 100ml chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons double cream
• 2 tablespoons Parmesan

Steam the salmon in the microwave in the lemon juice and set aside. Add your broccoli to your pasta in the last 5 mins of cooking. Mix the stock and cream. Drain the cooked pasta and broccoli, add the salmon and the sauce. Stir until thickened, then finally add your Parmesan.

Easy and packed with omega-3! Winner!