Pasta soul: 10 simple and delicious pasta recipes for children over 2 years old

Pasta is one of those few dishes that children rarely refuse.

Spaghetti, farfalle, fusilli, “horns” or “bows” - the variety of pasta shapes allows you to experiment in the kitchen, and the Italian tradition of cooking pasta with various sauces and fillings makes pasta an independent dish that both adults and children always want to enjoy!

It is generally accepted that pasta cannot be classified as a healthy product. However, various scientific studies on the benefits and harms of pasta indicate the opposite. Durum wheat pasta can be part of a healthy diet. Moreover, high-quality pasta is even healthy, because it contains B vitamins, vitamin E, the amino acid tryptophan and fiber that are valuable for the body.

If you decide to diversify your child’s menu, we recommend saving several simple and delicious pasta recipes for children over 2 years old from our food selection, which is entirely dedicated to delicious pasta!

Pasta with creamy spinach sauce

Source: Freepik

Ingredients:

• Penne – 250 g
• Spinach – 250 g
• Cream 20% – 200 ml
• Parmesan – 50-70 g
• Cherry tomatoes – 3 pcs.

How to cook?

Boil the pasta until tender, after salting the water, rinse the spinach thoroughly and dry, grate the cheese on a fine grater. Place the spinach in a preheated frying pan, pour in the cream and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Salt the sauce to taste and add to the prepared penne. Stir and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and cherry tomatoes before serving.

Christmas wreath

As a rule, productions can be varied: everyday and festive. Try making a surprise for Christmas. Moreover, everything you need is nearby. You don’t need to waste a lot of time and effort, all you need is desire and imagination. Let's make a wreath step by step.

Take scissors, cardboard, glue, pasta, ribbon, paint of any color, bell.

The process is very simple.

1. Familiarize yourself with the work so that in the end it looks like it does in stores. You will need to make your own cardboard base. Preferably something similar to a ring, because the size depends on this.
2. Having made the base, start decorating. Using glue and imagination, attach different things without wasting empty space.
3. Once completed, lead to decoration. Decorate the item with gold paint.
4. You can add a ribbon for yourself. Let it be red, it will look great. Wrap the craft, then fasten the rest.
5. Closer to the base we will leave another decoration - a bell. Chic decoration for the holiday. It’s worth a try and you will see for yourself how easy it is to work. When finished, you can take a photo and send it to your friends.

Pasta with green peas

Source: Unsplash

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti – 200 g
• Frozen green peas – 200 g
• Onion – 1 pc.
• Garlic – 1 clove
• Walnut – 8 pcs
• Soft goat cheese – 6 tbsp. l.
• Olive oil – 1 tbsp. l.

How to cook?

Boil the spaghetti in salted water, dice the onion, chop the garlic cloves and walnuts. Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil, then add the cream and green peas, mix thoroughly and reduce the heat to low immediately after the sauce has boiled. Simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce thickens, add salt. Puree the finished sauce, but not until smooth, then add cheese and spaghetti. Sprinkle with walnuts and serve.

Checklist from a nutritionist: 10 must-have foods for the healthy development of children

Classic recipe for milk soup with noodles for children

Before we start preparing milk soup with pasta, let's tell you a little about the choice of products for the traditional recipe.

Milk. It would seem that if we are talking about food for children, then we should choose the best possible quality without adding water. But not in this case. Baby food should not be excessively fatty, so milk should be diluted with water in any case. The proportions are approximately as follows: for 4 parts of milk from the store with a fat content of 2.5%, you need to add 1 part of water. If you take homemade milk, then feel free to dilute it with water 1 to 1. Please note that the recipe also includes butter, which also adds calories. Therefore, be sure to dilute the milk with water without worrying that the taste will not be rich.

Vermicelli. One of the problems when preparing such a milk soup is that the vermicelli does not have time to boil. Indeed, pasta cooks more slowly in milk than in water. At the same time, prolonged boiling worsens the taste and benefits of milk. To make the dish a success, choose thin noodles or shaped pasta in the shape of stars and flowers for baby food. Also remember that flour boils a lot and increases in volume. To prevent the soup from becoming too thick, follow the directions in the recipe.

What we need for 1 serving:

• Milk 2.5% - 1 glass;
• Water – ¼ cup;
• Vermicelli – 1 tablespoon with top;
• Sugar – 2 teaspoons;
• Salt – a small pinch;
• Butter – 5 gr.

It is better to choose a pan with a thick bottom and try not to leave it during the entire cooking. Even diluted milk can dry out and give the soup an unpleasant taste. Pour water into the bottom of the pan and place on fire. Let it boil, and then add sugar, salt and milk. As soon as the liquid begins to boil, reduce the heat to low and add the vermicelli. Leave the soup on the fire for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then turn off the stove and let the noodles brew and soak in milk for 10-15 minutes. Before serving, place a piece of butter on each plate.

You should not cook this dish for future use. Only freshly brewed soup has the best taste. Then the pasta will swell, the starch content will go into liquid and the taste will no longer be the same.

Pasta with zucchini and tomatoes

Source: Freepik

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes – 3 pcs.
• Zucchini or zucchini – 75 g
• Pasta – 25 g
• Butter – 25 g
• Cheese of your choice – 25 g

How to cook?

Boil the pasta, scald the tomatoes and peel them, remove the seeds, then cut into small cubes. Wash and cut the zucchini into cubes and simmer in butter for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to low and add the tomatoes with grated cheese, as well as a little salt. Stir until the cheese is completely melted, then beat the sauce with a blender until smooth and add to the pasta.

When can you give

Today on store shelves you can find special pasta for children under one year old. These products are easy to chew and swallow. You can start preparing them for your baby after eight to nine months. Such products must include an appropriate note about the appropriate age of the baby.

After ten months, baby pasta begins to be added to soup recipes. At 1 year of age, noodle soups can be introduced. For the first time, give no more than a tablespoon of soup or cooked children's pasta and keep an eye on the children. If the kids feel well, the dish can be given further. If you notice symptoms of a food allergy, delay introducing the product and consult a doctor.

One-year-olds can also make homemade noodles. Classic adult pasta can be given only after one and a half to two years. The child must be able to swallow well, and the child’s body must be ready for such heavy food. It is not advisable to give sausages and pasta until three years of age, since store-bought sausages contain preservatives, dyes and other harmful chemical additives.

For your child, choose pasta made from first class durum wheat or labeled “A” or “Durum”. In addition, they can be made from rice, corn and buckwheat flour, which is also suitable for babies after one and a half to two years.

Never use instant noodles! It is extremely dangerous for a small organism, as it contains various preservatives and chemicals. This product causes severe constipation and indigestion, abdominal pain and flatulence, and can cause poisoning and allergies.

Dishes with pasta should not be given to children with excess body weight, diabetes, constipation and gluten allergies. In the latter case, pasta made from buckwheat flour is acceptable.

Pasta with broccoli

Source: Freepik

Ingredients:

• Broccoli – 1 kg
• Olive oil – 4 tbsp. l.
• Bows paste – 400 g
• Cream

How to cook?

Wash the broccoli and separate into florets. Boil the pasta and 5 minutes before it is ready, add the broccoli to the pan. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan, add broccoli pasta and cream. When the cream boils, reduce the heat and stir until the sauce thickens. Sprinkle with cheese.

How not to cook pasta: 10 mistakes we regularly make

Useful properties and advantages of pasta

• The product can be purchased at any food store.

• Prepare quickly. • Have different variations of shapes and colors. For example, children love pasta in the form of letters or animal figures.

• Colored pasta for children attracts a large number of buyers, since children simply cannot pass by colorful edible figures.

• Parents who aim to gain weight for their child.

• Some pasta may well become the basis for the creative development of a child. With the help of letters he can learn the alphabet, and pasta in the form of numbers will help the child learn to count.

• Pasta products contain a lot of useful substances and microelements that have a positive effect on the musculoskeletal tissue of the baby.

Tagliatelle with chicken fillet and cherry tomatoes

Source: Unsplash

Ingredients:

• Tagliatelle – 2 nests
• Parmesan – 40 g
• Chicken fillet – 1 piece
• Cherry tomatoes – 200 g
• Olive oil – 2 tbsp. l.

How to cook?

Cut the pre-washed chicken fillet into small cubes and fry in olive oil. Cut the tomatoes into halves and fry with the chicken for 2-3 minutes, add salt. Add boiled pasta to the cherry chicken, stir and sprinkle with Parmesan.

Material properties

Flour products have excellent properties for creating beautiful and durable crafts:

• a wealth of choice - all kinds of elements of various shapes and sizes (long and short tubes, stars, shells, bows, spirals, leaves, horns, etc.).
• strength and long shelf life - all pasta does not change appearance for many years and does not wrinkle.

In addition to pasta, which has a uniform color scheme, stores sell colored products and varieties intended for baby food. The latter are distinguished by their intricate shape - these are bears, helicopters, cars, goslings, etc.

Pasta with eggplant

Source: Unsplash

Ingredients:

• Tagliatelle – 200 g
• Eggplants - 1 piece
• Tomatoes - 1 pc.
• Cheese of your choice

How to cook?

Boil the tagliatelle, chop the eggplant and fry in olive oil until translucent. Add diced tomato to them and simmer until tender, add salt. Add vegetable filling to pasta. Sprinkle with grated cheese and serve.

Carbohydrate diet: eat pasta and lose weight!

What delicious pasta dishes can you prepare for your child? After all, not every child eats willingly. Many begin to be capricious and refuse to eat. There are many recipes for pasta dishes and you can choose the one that you like best.

I want to offer you some simple but very tasty recipes for pasta dishes. Try making pasta with baked vegetables. To prepare, we will need these ingredients: fusilli or penne - 0.6 kg, freshly ground black pepper, sweet pepper, yellow and red - three pieces, salt, large eggplants - two pieces, extra virgin olive oil, one zucchini large size, Juice and zest of half a lemon, five cloves of garlic, one large bunch of parsley.

1. Cut the eggplant lengthwise into very thin slices, sprinkle with salt and leave for twenty minutes, then wash off the salt. We also cut the zucchini thinly. Remove the stems and core of the pepper and cut lengthwise into thick strips.

2. Grease strips of eggplant, zucchini and peppers with olive oil, place on a rack lined with foil and place in the center of an oven preheated to one hundred and eighty degrees, turning on the grill. Turn over a couple of times. Bake until soft, about twenty minutes.

3. Place a pot of water over high heat, bring to a boil, add salt to taste, add pasta and cook until done. Chop the garlic and parsley leaves. Pour about 6 tablespoons of oil into the pan, add the garlic and cook over medium heat for two minutes. Next, add a little black pepper and parsley, stir and remove from heat.

4. Place the finished peppers in a bag for seven minutes and then remove the skin. Place the baked vegetables on a board and then roughly chop them using a heavy knife.

5. Place the chopped vegetables in a frying pan with garlic and parsley, add salt, mix and heat.

6. Place the finished pasta in a colander, shake and add to the pan with the sauce. After this, mix and carefully place on heated plates. Serve immediately.

Here's another recipe - spaghetti with black olive dressing. For cooking you need these products: spaghetti - 0.3 kg, freshly ground black pepper, a mixture of olives and pitted olives - one jar, salt, garlic - two cloves, olive oil, green onions - one large bunch, pine nuts - one handful.

1. Place the olives and olives in a colander. Remove pits from olives and olives.

2. Thinly slice the green onions. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Pour five tablespoons of oil into the pan, add garlic and onion. Fry everything over medium heat, stirring, for one minute.

3. Place the onion with garlic and oil in a blender, add olives and olives, pour in brine or olive oil. Beat into a coarse paste.

4. Cook spaghetti in a saucepan of boiling water, salted to taste. At the same time, fry the pine nuts in a dry frying pan, shaking, for about one minute.

5. Place the pasta in a colander, reserving two tablespoons of the broth. Pour the broth into the olive paste and mix. Place the finished spaghetti on plates, top with sauce and sprinkle with nuts. Bon appetit!

Spaghetti with cheese sauce

Source: Unsplash

Ingredients:

• Cream - 200 ml
• Hard cheese, several types available - 150 g
• Peeled walnuts - 15 g

How to cook?

Boil the spaghetti. Grate the cheese and nuts into a separate container. Place the cream on the fire, add the grated cheese and nuts and stir until thickened. Add the sauce to the pasta and mix thoroughly.

Why is the main element pasta?

For production, consider a variety of shapes such as:

• Horns;
• Spaghetti;
• Long feathers;
• Butterflies;
• Spirals.

The baby will have a choice and a lot of imagination about which types to use. For the wheels of the car, for example, he will start using a rounded shape, for the body - a long vermicelli. The baby will begin to distinguish between short and long objects.

An important plus is that pasta is not harmful; if you eat it, nothing bad will happen.

An important point we consider is the development of motor skills, thanks to which the child will begin to speak earlier. For children from one to three years old, it is useful to pay attention to finger games and working with small things.

Spaghetti with veal and vegetables

Source: Unsplash

Ingredients:

• Veal – 400 g
• Spaghetti – 200 g
• Tomatoes – 200 g
• Bell pepper – 2 pcs.
• Soy sauce – 50 g

How to cook?

Cut the veal into small cubes and fry in olive oil. Cut the tomatoes and peppers into thin strips and add to the veal. Add soy sauce and simmer until done. Add the meat filling to the prepared spaghetti and sprinkle with grated cheese if desired.

What are the benefits of pasta? 3 recipes for children

Milk soup with noodles: traditional recipe

As already mentioned, this dish can be prepared with any type of pasta.
But since vermicelli cooks the fastest, we will choose it. Saving time is especially important in the morning when preparing breakfast. Cooking time: 10-15 minutes.

The recipe is for 4 servings.

Compound:

Cooking

1. Boil water, add a little salt, add vermicelli into it and cook until half cooked (according to the cooking time indicated on the package: just divide it in half). Usually this is 3-4 minutes. Place the finished vermicelli on a sieve or colander, let the water drain, but do not allow the noodles to stick together.
2. Place the pasta in boiling milk and cook for the remaining half of the time required to cook the noodles (that is, another 3-4 minutes).
3. At the end of cooking, add salt (if you are making unsweetened soup) and, if desired, a piece of butter (15-20 grams). You can also add sugar now, but it’s better to add it directly to the plate. What if one of the family members doesn’t like sweet soup?

Pour the finished dish into plates and serve. We will put sugar, berries, jam and other additions on the table so that each family member can give the soup the desired taste. And if you are concerned about the calorie content of your food, you can do without the additions. The dish is fine without them.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sgSYLqVwJrE

Related publications:

1. Original recipe for milk soup with dumplings: a distant taste of childhood
2. Delicious breakfast without steaming: milk soup from a slow cooker
3. Milk soup with rice - a hearty breakfast recipe
4. Recipe for chicken soup with dumplings for adults and small households

Previous: White Bean Soup

Next article: Chicken broth with rice - quick and “angry”

Quick pasta with chicken

Source: Unsplash

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti or penne – 250 g
• Tomatoes – 2 pcs.
• Basil – 1 small bunch
• Chicken fillet – 1 piece
• Olive oil

How to cook?

Boil the pasta, cut the tomatoes and fry in olive oil. Add finely chopped basil and chicken fillet, cut into small cubes, salt, then simmer under the lid until the meat is cooked. Add the finished pasta to the meat filling and mix, then leave on low heat under the lid for another 1 minute.

How to properly fasten our creations

Parents are wondering how to glue pasta together to make something original. Let's discuss proven options.

• PVA glue. Safe, keeps the parts on the very basis of the work, usually on cardboard.
• Paste. Harmless, helps with voluminous figures. The problem is hardening; the process is quite slow, which is why it is not used often.
• Plasticine. The best option for holding feathers is spaghetti.
• Double sided tape. When attached to a hard surface, it holds parts well. Needed when there is a lack of other methods.
• Hot glue. A reliable method, four-year-old children can use it only under the supervision of elders.
• Super glue. It is hardly worth using, it is undesirable. Suitable for tight bends where a glue gun can't do anything.

We sorted out this problem. But how to color pasta.

There are two options. The first is to paint by hand. The second is to make numerous blanks with one color.

You need to take food coloring (liquid) and a cellophane bag. Lay out the pasta, fill it with the chosen color, tie the neck, roll it with your hands, and leave it to dry.

Let's look at applications that you can come up with and make in a quiet environment.

Shrimp pasta

Source: Unsplash

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti – 200 g
• Butter – 25 g
• Peeled shrimp – 200 g
• Lemon juice – 1 tbsp. l.
• Cream

How to cook?

Boil the pasta, meanwhile melt the butter over medium heat and fry the shrimp. Add lemon juice to the shrimp, then cream and salt, let the sauce thicken, then add the finished pasta to the pan and mix thoroughly.

How to choose the right pasta?

Many adults consider pasta to be a useless source of carbohydrates. In fact, pasta can boast of the presence of B vitamins, phosphorus, calcium, potassium and other useful minerals. You should not refuse this product from your child’s diet. The most important thing is to understand and remember when you can give pasta to children. To successfully digest pasta, the body must produce a special enzyme. It is for this reason that there are age restrictions.

What pasta should I choose for my baby? As for quality, it must be first-class. You can find them by the markings on the pack: “A”, durum or “1st class”. For the little ones, choose smaller pasta or traditional noodles, and for children over 1.5-2 years old, it makes sense to buy “beautiful” pasta. These are traditional shells, stars, spirals or special children's products in the form of letters and animal figures.

One of the “tricks” of modern manufacturers is colored children’s products. From what months can you give your baby pasta of different colors? Take the time to read the ingredients: if it contains only natural dyes, such pasta is completely safe. Accordingly, “baby” pasta of all colors of the rainbow can be given from 8-9 months, and “adult” pasta - from the first year of life.