Summer Green Vegetable Sauces

Al Verde Sauce: I requested that you share your favorite recipes with us. Many thanks, and keep them coming! Dear Kyle: Months ago I sent you my recipe for artichoke pesto. Here are two other recipes that my friends and family keep requesting. The Al Verde sauce is a summer staple at my house. And the Microwave Risotto is a fall favorite. Share them as you wish. Ann Sheehy

I'm not sure who Antonia is, but considering how similar this is to orecchiette coi broccoletti, she may be from Southern Italy.

Feta is a crumbly tart salty Greek cheese that has become quite popular recently in Italy, and though most of it goes into salads it has many other uses as well. This pasta salad will be quite nice in the summer, either as a first course or as part of a picnic.

Feta cheese has become quite popular in Italy, and though the primary ingredients in this light summer pasta sauce are eggplant and bell peppers, it contributes a distinctive savory richness that is quite nice.

A tasty pasta salad with bell peppers and black olives. Perfect picnic food!

Mozzarella is one of the most refreshing cheeses there is, and works very well with grilled vegetables in this sauce. The recipe calls for frozen grilled vegetables, which will greatly reduce the preparation time; you could also buy grilled vegetables from your deli.

Corkscrews with Zucchini Flowers, or Fusilli ai Fiori di Zucca: Zucchini flowers are one of the harbingers of summer, tasty golden flowers that reflect the sun from which they spring. They're also quite versatile, and add a delicate note to this pasta salad.

Farfalle With Bell Peppers and Arugola: Farfalle are bowties, in English, and their broad flat surfaces are perfect for catching and holding sauces of this kind.

Fusilli, and a Zucchini Sauce: Fusilli, corkscrews, are one of the most popular short pasta forms in Italy. For good reason; they hold up well to cooking, and do a wonderful job of capturing the sauce. A recipe? Fusilli with zucchini, a refreshing, healthy summer sauce.

A quck, tasty green sauce for pasta that can be made in bulk and has many other uses as well.

Lots of greens and cheese make for an extremely delicate sauce.

Greengrocer's Gigli, or Gigli ai Sapori dell'Orto: Gigli are a pasta shape, and here they're served with a quick, simple zucchini and carrot sauce.

A neat look at pesto sauce and its place in Ligurian cuisine, with a number of tasty recipes, by Sims Brandon. Nice!

Lined Elbow Macaroni, and a Pea Sauce For Them: Gomiti Rigati, lined elbow macaroni, are perfect with chunky sauces, especially sauces that also have oil or cream that can slip into the pasta. They're about a half inch in diameter and 1 1/2 inches long, and cook in 10-12 minutes. A recipe? With peas; one generally thinks of peas as a side dish, or with rice -- Veince's famed Risi e Bisi. However, they're delightful with pasta too!

Mezze Penne With Lemons and Peas, or Mezze Penne al Limone e Piselli: This is a refreshingly cool summery dish that will be quite nice either at table or taken along to a picnic.

A simple, quick tomatoey sauce that should work well on pasta.

Pasta Primavera: Pasta alla Primavera, which Italians call either garden or greengrocer's pasta (all'orto or dell'ortolano, respectively) is extremely refreshing and very nice in the summer months.

A version with bell peppers, onions, and broccoli florets.

Primavera sauce is incredibly variable; some people like some vegetables, and some vegetables do better in one vegetable patch as opposed to another, so no two recipes are alike, though they all do share the freshness of spring. This sauce is perfect over pasta and will take minutes.

Pasta Salad with Grilled Vegetables, or Insalata di Pasta con Verdure Grigliate: Pasta salad is an obvious concept and there are a great many variations on the theme. This one will work well as a main course in a light luncheon, perhaps with a tossed green salad, and will also be a nice side dish at a cookout or picnic.

A quick, tasty vegetable sauce you can whip up while the pasta water is heating.

Hard boiled eggs blended with all sorts of herbs: Quite tasty and perfect in summer.

Pasta with Bell Pepper Cream, or Pasta con Crema di Peperoni: This is remarkably simple, and is also quite refreshing. In other words, a perfect dish for the summer months, when it's too hot to make something involved or demanding. As an added bonus, it's just as good warm as it is hot.

Rigatoni con le Zucchine: A classic summer pasta sauce.

Spaghetti Annalisa, With Zucchini Flowers: Come summer, zucchini are in bloom. This recipe is a perfect way to use them.

Spaghetti with Peas, or Spaghetti coi Piselli: This is a simple, quick summery recipe; it really doesn't require grated cheese though some people like to add a little. It will also work with a variety of pasta shapes other than spaghetti -- in particular, it will be nice with penne.

A Ligurian classic that's perfect for summer.

Tagliatelle and Zucchini, or Taglietelle e Zucchine: Since we're in the midst of zucchini season, here's a recipe for tagliatelle e zucchine. It has you make the pasta from scratch, which makes the recipe more involved than it might be; when Elisabetta and I do this we simply buy our pasta, at which point it becomes very quick. Select small zucchine, because they're more delicately flavored.

Tagliatelle with Peas, or Tajadele Coi Bisi: Peas are one of the most classic spring vegetables, and Lumigiano, in the Vicentino, is renowned for its peas. This is the town's signature dish.

The Ligurians have a long tradition of adding greens to pasta seasoned with pesto sauce, and this tasty variation on their more strictly vegetarian fare gains considerable grace from crisp prosciutto flakes, which nicely contrast the oil and garlic.

In Liguria it is common practice to cook vegetables, especially string beans, with pasta, especially if everything is then seasoned with pesto sauce. Here we have something quite different, a tomatoey green bean and pasta casserole. But also quite good.

Another Ligurian specialty, trenette (thin linguine) with eggplant and pesto sauce. And again, quite healthy.

Similar to spaghetti al pesto, but with the addition of string beans and potatoes to the pasta. Very nice, and healthy too.

Twists or Fusilli Primavera, or Eliche o Fusilli Primavera: This is a recipe Caròla Francesconi devised, using the proportions given her by Monzù Gerardo Modugno.