27 Colorful Pasta Dinner Recipes That Are Perfect for Spring
Spring is just around the corner, and there’s no better way to welcome the season than with a burst of color on your dinner plate. These 27 colorful pasta dinner recipes celebrate the flavors of spring produce and are sure to bring freshness to your table.
Spaghetti with Creamy Lemon-Spinach Sauce: The Tastiest Way to Eat More Vegetables
Give your veggie servings a boost with this easy spaghetti with spinach sauce recipe. Loosely inspired by the flavors of classic pesto, this vibrant pasta packs in plenty of spinach and basil with a garnish of nutty walnuts and savory Parmesan cheese. Serve with a drizzle of good olive oil and a green salad on the side.
Beet Pasta with Goat Cheese & Walnuts
Beets are blended to create a vibrant sauce for an easy way to amp up your veggie intake. We use marinated beets for extra flavor, but you can easily substitute plain cooked beets—just add a bit of lemon juice or white-wine vinegar to balance the sauce. Goat cheese adds creaminess while walnuts provide a satisfying crunch in this healthy pasta dish.
Grilled Eggplant & Tomato Pasta
The combination of slightly smoky grilled eggplant and sweet tomatoes is delightful. The eggplant-tomato mixture served over whole-wheat pasta with fresh basil and a bit of salty cheese makes an easy, healthy weeknight dinner.
Roasted Red Pepper, Spinach & Feta Penne Pasta
In this quick 20-minute dinner recipe, tender penne pasta is combined with garlic, roasted red peppers and spinach and topped with crumbled feta cheese for a fast and easy Mediterranean-inspired meal. This recipe was graciously shared by EatingWell reader Dottie Carpenter, who states, "Recipes are no good if they're not shared!"
Creamy Rotisserie Chicken & Spinach Pasta
This creamy rotisserie chicken pasta recipe uses Gruyère cheese and cream cheese as the base for the velvety sauce. Gruyère adds a rich and nutty flavor, although you can experiment with alternatives like Cheddar or Swiss cheese. We love the ease of using baby spinach, but feel free to swap it out for another leafy green like kale or Swiss chard if you have them on hand.
Caprese Pasta Salad with Salami
Tomatoes—both cherry and heirloom—are the star of the show in this pasta salad. This easy summer dinner includes salami for its rich savory flavor, but you can skip it or sub in white beans to make this dish vegetarian. Recipe adapted from Tomato Love by Joy Howard.
Creamy Lemon Pasta with Shrimp
Yogurt makes a fine substitute for cream in the sauce for this easy pasta recipe. Just warm the yogurt (do not boil) and add some pasta-cooking water to thin it out. Lemon and fresh basil brighten up the whole-wheat pasta and complement the shrimp in this quick dinner recipe.
One-Pot Pasta With Spinach & Tomatoes
This one-pot pasta dinner is simple, fresh, and healthy—what's not to love? Cooking the pasta right in the sauce saves time and cleanup while infusing the noodles with more flavor. Change up the spinach for any vegetables you have on hand such as sliced zucchini and mushrooms, or add leftover chicken or cooked and crumbled sausage. We've happily embraced whole-wheat spaghetti as a healthier alternative to white pasta; it works especially well in this one-pot application.
