PASTA

Pasta primavera! Throw in any veggies you like with some olio, salt, pepper and a lil Parm reggiano and toss!

Greek salad with cool pasta is nice. Feta, onion, olives, cucumber, greens and pasta..

I agree with "don't need a recipe" and "experiment".

I don't do recipes generally (except for things with structural ingredients, as in baked goods). I just cook.

The dumb TikTok thing where you throw some cherry tomatoes and a hunk of feta cheese in an oven-safe dish with a little olive oil over (spray works), maybe some minced garlic/onion, then bake until it's all roasty and soft - that's tasty and absurdly easy. (I was surprised how good it was.) I did an alternate where I roasted some fresh mushrooms in a separate dish, then when the mushrooms gave up liquid but were almost done, I put a bunch of raw spinach in with them and covered until the spinach wilted. I mixed that with the pasta and the roasted tomato/feta at serving time. (Doing it in one dish, the mushroom liquid made the tomatoes less roasty so not as tasty.)

Another thing you could consider is whether you might enjoy a more nutrient-dense pasta - that will be down to individual taste. I've found that I like red lentil pasta pretty much as well as regular pasta, and it has more fiber and around twice the protein.

I've tried the black bean and edamame pastas which have around 3-4x the protein of wheat pasta, but they have a much more chewy texture. I don't care for them in Italian-esque sauces, but found that I do like them in Asian-style preparations, such as combined with stir fried veggies. The thin shapes are best IMO - spaghetti, fettuccine. I especially like these with a peanut sauce made with peanut butter powder (defatted) or almond butter powder, soy sauce, chile sauce if you like heat, and rice wine vinegar. To that, one can add any reasonable combination of fresh grated ginger root, minced garlic, chopped green onions, Szechuan peppercorns, . . . .

Experiments are fun. What's the worst that could happen? One sub-par meal, maybe. I can live with that.

Quick spaghetti with mushroom and tomato sauce

2 servings, reheats well for a leftover lunch. My go-to for a pasta fix.

Cook 2 servings pasta; I really like chickpea pasta. It tastes pretty close to the real thing but has extra fiber. Save 1/4 cup cooking water.

Sauté a few handfuls of sliced mushrooms (portobello are great)

Add a can of diced tomatoes a clove or two of chopped garlic, the reserved cooking water, and any herbs you like. Fresh if you have them, dry is fine. I use basil, parsley, Italian seasoning, a little salt and pepper, whatever. Let it simmer and thicken while you make it taste good.

Toss in the pasta, add a little Parmesan or similar.

I like mixing in zucchini noodles with pasta noodles to bulk it up with more veggie but have less calories.

Minestrone soup is one of my faves... Loads of veggies with just enough Ditalini pasta to make it more filling. Make your own and control the sodium, too.

I use fresh onions, garlic, spinach, carrots, zucchini, celery, Italian parsley, kidney beans, cannellini beans, vegetable stock, canned diced tomatoes, canned green beans, Ditalini pasta and whatever Italian seasonings I feel like chucking in. Super easy and makes a ton.

I enjoy the texture of pasta, so I'm likely to mix my pasta with spaghetti squash or some other pasta-like veggie as filler so I can still have the mouth feel of the pasta but in a serving size that feels filling to me.

I've been experimenting with Palmini pasta as a substitute or a filler with regular pasta. Warning it smells awful until you rinse it, but once you rinse, heat and add a light sauce it is quite nice. The texture is okay also.