Pasta is perfect for meatless-Mondays!

After the 4th of July weekend, and gorging on barbecued ribs, hot dogs, grill spears, and home made burgers, both me and my belly felt heavy. I was ready for something a little lighter and fresher, and along came “meatless-Monday”.

Meatless-Monday is a great concept for a couple of reasons. First of all it is a good opportunity for us omnivores to explore dishes that aren’t focused on meat. For some reason that one ingredient would always play the lead role when I planned my dinner, so to me meatless-Monday is a chance for other ingredients to be the star of the meal!

Another good reason to get on the meatless-Monday bandwagon is that eating more vegetables has great health benefits, like  lowering your cholesterol, and reducing the risk of diabetes and coronary diseases. So it wouldn’t hurt to try it out for at least one day a week.

Eating a little less meat can also do good in other ways. Did you know that it takes eight times as much resources to produce meat as it takes to produce vegetables? So meatless-Monday is also an opportunity to help save the world little by little.

My cravings for this particular  post-4th-of-July-meatless-Monday was leaning towards pasta. Pasta dishes are perfect for meatless-Mondays, as so many pasta recipes do not even ask for meat, and the ones that do can often do fine without.  I started to run through all my tested and tried pasta recipes in my mind, and that’s when I realized I could get some great new ideas by asking the fabulous foodies on twitter to suggest their favorite pasta recipes.

Here are some of the yummy suggestions I got:

• DiannesDishes This is one of my favorites: http://bit.ly/q5xE1
• brannyboilsover not italian but a delicious Thai Pasta Dish: http://bit.ly/T2kYw
• chrissy11686 this is one of my FAVES: http://bit.ly/1631xE little spicy, very yum
• MDTeresa We’re making farfalle w/fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, artichoke hearts, mozzarella, EVOO, and S&P! Delicious! Perfect summer pasta!
• gospodini you can try this recipe if you want: http://bit.ly/35oyzy
• TangledNoodle [shameless self-promo] How about roasted red pepper sauce w/your fave pasta? http://bit.ly/12aPDp Just ignore call 4 roast chicken!
• TheKitchenette Meatless Manicotti http://bit.ly/11CsiG
• KAHUNA75 it is summer- grate some zuchini and saute in olive oil , garlic , onion, butter and red pepper flake then toss in your pasta
• Bookie15 you read my mind. On warm days we like to make a tuna nicoise-type pasta salad & serve with crusty bread.Can even omit tuna!
• TheUnknownChef passato al pomodoro. Run ripe plum toms thru fine food mill, bring to boil w/basil. Simmer till thick & toss w/spaghetti & parm-regg
• sally_monster Haven’t tried this yet but it looks and sounds delish! http://bit.ly/RAr3r
• KitchenDani tuna, chilli, tomato if fish is in, blue cheese and mushrooms if fish is out.
• mclifford973 what about greek style pasta? feta cheese, tomatoes, cukes, pasta, kalama. olives, pepperoncini, beets, served cold?

So many great suggestions (my mouth is watering as I am reading through them).

For this time my pasta dish was decided by what I had in the kitchen, so I made a quick artichoke and mushroom sauce. I am definitely going to try out some of the suggestions above within the nearest future tho!

Mushroom & Artichoke Sauce

• 10 ounces white mushrooms
• 12 ounce jar artichoke hearts, drained and diced
• 1 diced onion
• 1 juiced lemon
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 garlic cloves
• olive oil
• chopped fresh basil
• salt & pepper
• parmigiana cheese

Heat oil and garlic, add artichokes, mushrooms, and basil, let cook for a couple of minutes. Add lemon juice and white wine, let simmer for another couple of minutes before adding salt and pepper.
Mix with your favorite pasta and drizzle some grated parmigiana cheese over before serving.