Pasta As A Main Dish

Pasta is often the main dish of struggling college students, who rely on that famous blue box of prepackaged macaroni and cheese. It's also the main dish served the night before a marathon, when marathon-runners need to "carbo-load". Italian restaurants are known for their main-dish pastas, and these platter-loads of pasta, of course, cost substantially more than the blue box of mac and cheese. These restaurant dishes do go a long way toward helping the non-marathon-running "carbo-load", which isn't always a good thing for the non-marathon-running patron. The Italian restaurant indulgences do taste good, but such a high per-noodle price combined with such a high per-forkful calorie count doesn't make for the best regular diet.

Serving pasta as a main dish, however, doesn't have to mean having too little money, spending too much of it, or taking in enough calories to keep every runner in the Boston marathon going.

Some key principles of serving main-dish pasta are:

1. Whole grain pasta is a healthier choice.

2. Keep in mind the amount of pasta in each serving. If the dish contains mostly pasta keep serving size down. Some pasta main dishes are close to, if not, 100% pasta and sauce; others have lots of vegetables and/or protein added. The serving size for any pasta dish should decrease as the percentage of pasta content increases. In paying attention to the calorie count of pasta keep in mind that 20 spaetzle noodles add up to fewer calories than 20 large shells.

Consider serving a good-sized salad (with just a little light dressing) with your pasta main dish. This adds balance and decreases the need for larger portions of the main dish.

3. When the aim is to decrease that percentage of pasta in each serving, adding vegetables increases the nutrition level and substance. Lean protein is a more sensible choice that protein high in fat.

4. Light sauces are healthier than heavy sauces. Sauces made predominantly with dairy products are generally highest in fats and calories. Adding less of any sauce keeps calories (and often fat) down.

5. Most recipes for main-dish pastas can be altered to some degree. While there is no doubt altering will change the finished product, sometimes your version of the finished product can be equally good-tasting. Consider substituting meat with a soy product.

6. A handy way to come up with new main-dish pasta is to know the ingredients you (and your family) tend to like best, and find new ways to use them. Most people lean toward certain herbs or spices. Some love onions or mushrooms and would like them in every meal. There are those who prefer lasagna noodles and those who only like more delicate pastas.

Finding new ways to use ingredients isn't limited to finding new combinations of ingredients or choosing between the oven, the stove-top, or the microwave. "New ways" can mean finding new ways to prepare the ingredients. Grilled protein changes the overall taste of a dish. Large pieces of vegetables versus chopped vegetables does as well. Marinating is another way to change ingredients. Adding a topping that will form a flavorful crust and texture is yet one other option for many dishes.

7. Consider who will be consuming the meal and choosing dishes with preparation that makes altering ingredients to suit different people. In general, the lower in fat content it is, the better; but the middle-aged individual with a thick middle should eat less starch than an active teenager. Children younger than adolescence generally require smaller portions than adults but have different fat and calorie needs than older people.

Meals for which non-pasta ingredients are blended separately (rather than just cooked separately) can easily be adjusted for each individual who will be served. (In other words, throw a dozen giant meatballs on Dad's spaghetti if he insists, but add one chopped meatball to your five-year-old's plate and none to your vegetarian-mother's plate.)

8. Consider the number of times in a month any pasta dish is served before ruling out some of those great tasting platter-loads of pasta with Alfredo sauce. If someone in the family just loves lasagna or Alfredo sauce there's little calorie damage done if you prepare such a meal on their birthday or just as a treat.

Most of the time, however, it always makes the best sense to plan pasta main-dishes carefully. With the right planning, using pasta is a great way to turn even the simplest of ingredients into a meal.