My husband’s new dentist is in a mall with an Eataly. Yes… THAT Eataly. Last Monday he asked if I wanted him to bring fresh pasta home…I said, ‘sure,’ especially since I didn’t have a dinner plan yet. He brought home LOTS of pasta…more than one night’s worth of pasta so I found myself in need of some quickie-no-forward-planning sauces.

My husband loves food as much as I do and we spent a lot of time pre-kids making fresh pasta. We still do (occasionally) but it’s not a weeknight project.

If you’re a purist, this is not even close to a traditional pasta sauce. However, please send me a note if you’d like a fast ‘traditional’ tomato sauce, I make several variations but they take about 25 – 30 minutes.

These sauces take about 10 -15 minutes total time (depending on how fast you chop vegetables) at most. Seriously!

‘I-Have-No-Tomato-Sauce’ sauce with garlic and rosemary (or the variation shown above, with garlic and basil)

I-Don’t-Have-Any-Tomato-Sauce Sauce

Healthy-Green-Diva ‘Sauce’ — with zucchini, baby spinach, rosemary & garlic

I-Don’t-Have-Time-To-Make-Sauce: Green Diva Edition

My children rejoiced because I typically limit our pasta intake.  Not because it isn’t delicious (it is) but given the chance, my oldest would eat it every day. For every meal. I’ve been trying to build diverse palates for both kids and aim for nutritionally dense foods, whenever possible.  Note, the kids had the veggies on the side — I didn’t serve the sauce for either of them, they still prefer fresh vegetables.

Photo of I-Don’t-Have-Any-Tomato-Sauce Sauce over Spinach Ravioli

Spinach Ricotta Ravioli from Eataly with Veggies on the Side

Whether you’re working with filled varieties (like ravioli or tortellini) or a nice simple tagilatelle or penne, these light, flavorful sauces play a supporting role to the pasta’s star performance. Also, if you enjoy this approach, these sauces are BRILLIANT with summer-fresh veggies (still a few months away for us here in the Northeast.)

If you have questions or thoughts, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear how these worked for you! If you’d like to get the weekly-or-so newsletter and receive the ‘Ultimate Save Time Making Dinner Guide’, join the community!