This is a very simple light pasta dish with vegetables, and the nice thing is that you don’t have to go shopping for it if you sieved tomatoes and pasta in your pantry, peas in your freezer, parmigiano in your fridge, and parsley in your garden. In other words, all ingredients keep very well. If you can get good fresh tomatoes where you are, by all means use them instead! But with the ridiculously cold summer we’ve been having here, fresh tomatoes just aren’t good enough. The white wine is optional, it adds freshness and complexity to the dish.

I prefer mafaldine for this sauce because the combination of textures works very well. Mafaldine are ribbon pasta with wavy edges, named in honor of Princess Mafalda of Savoy. If you can’t find them, you can simply use tagliatelle.

Ingredients

For 2 servings

150-200 grams (1/3 – 1/2 pound) mafaldine or tagliatelle

200 ml (5/6 cup) sieved tomatoes, or 450 grams (1 pound) fresh tomatoes prepared like in this recipe

150 grams (1 cup) peas, fresh or frozen

1 shallot, minced

1 glass (100 ml) dry white wine (optional)

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbsp chopped fresh flatleaf parsley

freshly grated parmigiano

Preparation

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and cook the mafaldine or tagliatelle al dente according to package instructions.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the shallot over medium heat until translucent.

Add the peas (they may still be frozen) and sauté for a minute longer.

Add the white wine (if using) and cook over high heat until most of the wine has evaporated.

Add the tomatoes and simmer over low heat (medium heat if using fresh tomatoes), stirring now and then.

The sauce is ready when it has a nice thick consistency and the peas are done to your liking (obviously al dente).

Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce, together with freshly grated parmigiano and most of the chopped parsley. Toss to mix.

Serve on warm plates, sprinkled with additional parmigiano and remaining parsley.