Pasta e Piselli
Pasta and sweet peas in a light, starchy broth — nonna's five-ingredient Tuesday.
Ingredients
- 180 g Pasta
- 250 g Frozen peas
- ½ Onion
- 2 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
- ¾ tsp Salt
- 40 g Hard cheese (optional)
- 600 ml Stock (optional)
- ½ tsp Black pepper (optional)
Method
- Finely dice the onion into small even pieces.
- Finely grate the hard cheese and set it aside for serving.
- Soften the diced onion in the olive oil in a deep pot over medium heat until translucent, about 4 minutes.
- Add the frozen peas, the stock (or water), and the salt to the pot and bring to a simmer.
- Simmer the peas gently until sweet and tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add the pasta straight to the pot and cook, stirring often, until tender and the broth turns starchy-thick, about 10 minutes.
- Ladle the pasta into bowls and finish with the grated cheese and plenty of black pepper.
Tap “Start cooking” for live timers that flag what to get ahead on while something simmers.
About Pasta e Piselli
Pasta e piselli, pasta and peas, is a homely Neapolitan and central-Italian dish that belongs to the same one-pot tradition as pasta e ceci and pasta e fagioli. It is deliberately humble, a five-ingredient supper built on the sweetness of peas and the starch of pasta rather than any elaborate technique. What sets it apart from a soup is its consistency: the pasta cooks directly in the pot with the peas and just enough stock, so it releases its starch into the liquid and the whole thing turns thick and almost creamy on its own. Frozen peas, picked at their sweetest and frozen fast, work beautifully here and keep it a genuinely anytime meal.
It eats somewhere between a soup and a pasta, brothy and starchy, the onion softened to sweetness underneath and the peas bursting with a gentle green sweetness. Grated hard cheese stirred in at the table adds a savory, salty counterpoint, and a heavy hand with black pepper is traditional and welcome. This is nonna food, the sort of quick, thrifty dinner made on a Tuesday from whatever's in the freezer, and its charm is exactly that lack of pretense. Ladle it into bowls while it's loose and hot, because it keeps thickening as it sits.
Pasta e Piselli: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Pasta e Piselli?
A serving has about 675 calories — 27g protein, 93.5g carbs, 21g fat, 9.3g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is it high in protein?
Each serving has about 27g of protein, roughly 16% of its calories.
Is Pasta e Piselli gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Pasta. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for that ingredient to make it gluten-free.
How long does Pasta e Piselli take to make?
About 27 minutes start to finish, but only around 18 of those are hands-on — the rest is cooking time. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
Do I need every ingredient to make Pasta e Piselli?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out hard cheese, stock, black pepper — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Pasta e Piselli make?
This recipe makes 2 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.