Now here’s a weird one. Pasta… for dessert?
Okay, hear me out. Strawberries are delicious. When they’re in season, they’re abundant, but they don’t necessarily last all that long once they’re picked, and they’ll disappear the moment an animal finds them if you don’t pick them. So, if you’re producing strawberries, you’re going to have a lot of them, and you’re going to want to use them.
So, what happens if you have a lot of strawberries, you don’t have a lot of other ingredients, and maybe you don’t have a lot of resources to buy more. I’m not saying this is a poverty food, necessarily, but it does kind of feel that way, you know?
Pasta with strawberries is a Polish recipe, one with no clear origin, and often one enjoyed in childhood. A couple of Polish friends of mine, when I told them I made it, mentioned they had nostalgia for it. Me? I don’t, but I do love a good strawberry, so why not?
So, you might have some questions.
- Is there more to this recipe than just past and strawberries? Yes; a little powdered sugar, some sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon juice, to balance and round out the flavors in a sort of cream sauce.
- What kind of pasta should you use? Whatever you have on hand. If you google this, on the image search you can find a dozen different versions without even scrolling. I’ve seen it done with spaghetti, rotini, penne, bowties, macaroni, linguine, and more. I used rotini because I thought it would hold the sauce better. Did it? I don’t know, I’ve only made it the once.
- Can I blend the berries into a sauce? I was told by those aforementioned polish friends, in no uncertain terms, absolutely not. Well, I’m not your boss, and you don’t know them, so do what you want, but I think the texture is nice with mashed berries.
- Is this… good? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It depends on what you want out of it, really. It’s not a fancy dessert. It’s not deeply complex. But there’s a floor to how bad anything with fresh strawberries can be, you know?
There you go. Should you make strawberry pasta? Go for it! It tastes like strawberries and cream on pasta, you know what you’re getting into from the description. If it appeals, or if you just want to try something new, you aren’t going to go wrong here.
Polish Strawberry Pasta
Equipment
- Masher
- Mixing Bowl
- Pot
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Dried Pasta
- 1 Lb Fresh Strawberries
- 3 Tbsp Powdered Sugar
- ⅓ Cup Sour Cream
- ¼ Tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ Tsp Lemon Juice
Instructions
- Cook your pasta, and let it cool.1 Cup Dried Pasta
- Wash and hull your berries. Save a few and slice them for topping, but put the rest in your mixing bowl.1 Lb Fresh Strawberries
- Add the powdered sugar, sour cream, vanilla, and lemon to the berries. Mash them up into a consistency you like.3 Tbsp Powdered Sugar, ⅓ Cup Sour Cream, ¼ Tsp Vanilla Extract, ½ Tsp Lemon Juice
- Top the pasta with the berry sauce, add the sliced berries, and enjoy.