Baby Pasta

This baby pasta recipe is loaded with vegetables but so easy to make, little ones love it, the perfect idea for baby-led weaning.

Course: Family Dinner Ideas

Cuisine: New Zealand

Keyword: baby pasta, baby pasta sauce, pasta for babies, vegetable pasta sauce

Servings:

Calories: 226kcal

4.64 from 161 votes

Cook your choice of pasta, use the packet instructions as a guideline. For babies I suggest cooking the pasta slightly longer (2-3 minutes longer )than recommended so it is very soft to the bite and not al dente.
Grate the pumpkin and the carrot, you should have around a cup of each.
In a frypan heat the oil over a medium/high heat, sauté the grated pumpkin and carrot until soft and a little golden. This should take around 5 minutes.
Add the tinned tomatoes, herbs and spinach leaves to the pan, Simmer until the sauce is thick and the spinach leaves cooked, this should take around 5 minutes. Cool in the pan before blending (it can be very dangerous to blend piping hot liquids in a blender.)
Add the optional cream if desired and purée the sauce, then stir it through the cooked pasta.

As your baby grows older you can stop blending the pasta sauce, although in saying that, my school kids still love this pasta from when they were little.
If you don't feel like grating the veggies you can just chop them, the cooking time will be a little longer.
I use quite a bit of olive oil in this recipe, this keeps the calorie content of the pasta sauce high, and also helps the sauce thick
Don't salt the pasta water or the sauce if you are making this for a young baby, young babies should not have too much salt.
This pasta freezes and reheats well, freeze in an airtight container, I like to divide it into meal-sized portions. Reheat to piping hot in the microwave.

Cream: The cream is optional and can be left out
Spinach: Frozen spinach can be used, or the spinach can be substituted for another green leafy vegetable such as kale, or silverbeet. Grated zucchini also works well in this recipe.
Pumpkin: The pumpkin can be substituted for squash or butternut squash, sweet potato or kumara also works well.
Italian herbs: any dried or fresh herbs that you like will be fine, basil, mixed herbs, oregano all work well.
Pasta: You can use any pasta that you like, a glute free pasta, wholemeal pasta, or high protein pasta will all work well. I like to use spiral or penne shape as they tend to be nice and easy for kids to pick up.