Pasta Recipes for 1 Year Old

Until age 2 you have a "golden period" where their brain accepts anything they eat as NOT poisonous. After apx age 2 any chemical signature that goes in their mouth that they haven't eaten several times the brain triggers a 'gag' response. This lasts until apx age 5. "Toddler food", with it's totally bland repetition of about 11 ingredients is THE CAUSE behind 'picky eaters'.

So get those flavors going now! HERBS! SPICES! CHEESES! Travel the world in your kitchen.

Red sauce (marinara, bolognese, arribiatta, garden veggie, vodka -aka chef boyardee exclusively uses vodka sauce-, puttanesca, etc.), white sauce, pesto (basil and red pepper), clamsauce, mushroom sauce, veggies... 'hard' cheeses (parmsean, pecorino romano, sheeps milk) soft cheese (mozz, goat cheese, brie). Or go asian and use rice noodles and use; phad thai, indian tomato or coconut curries, cold somen noodles with soy/rice vinegar/sesame. Throw in any veggies you have handy, including spinach, broccoli, raddichio, etc.

You can't go wrong between 12&24mo, unless you stick to 'bland'

My 1-year-old loves different pasta shapes: DaLallo whole wheat orzo, Eden Organic vegetable alphabet letters and DeCecco's acini di pepe. We normally get the organic and whole wheat versions, but regular pasta is fine too. Once we figured out which shapes our kid liked, we bought in bulk through Amazon's Subscribe & Save program. Right now, our pantry is a glorious display of acini di pepe.

We have used 3 different pasta sauces/toppings, all of which our kid loves. Two are vegetarian, and the last is meat-based.

Our kid loves pesto, believe it or not. (So far, no allergic reactions to the pine nuts.) I almost always make my own to adjust the ratio of garlic, basil, lemon juice, olive oil and pine nuts, but when we're traveling, I get a small pouch of pre-made pesto, boil up 1/4cup of pasta and mix. That's the easiest, most satisfying meal for our kid on the go.

Another really easy non-meat pasta combo is simply a really flavorful olive oil and freshly grated aged parmesan cheese. Depending on the olive oil and the parmesan, this pasta can taste wonderfully green and nutty at the same time. Sometimes I sprinkle in a pinch of fresh thyme for a change. When our kid isn't very hungry or his garlic breath is overwhelming, we serve him this.

A meat-based pasta sauce that my baby also loves is his dad's creation on the cast-iron skillet: Saute onions and garlic, add minced lamb or beef or buffalo and a cube of beef stock. Stir in 1 can of tomato paste and 1 can of diced/whole tomatoes. From there, you can add whatever herbs and spices to suit your taste. We use ground pepper, bay leaves, thyme, cumin and a dash of Tabasco. Anyway, the adults in this family love this sauce, so we often have a big pot made, save some for baby and then freeze smaller batches in those Rubbermaid square sandwich containers. Each batch can be defrosted later for a meal for 2 adults, maybe even 2 adults + 1oz for baby.

If you're interested in checking out other fun pasta shapes, DeCecco "soup shapes" page < http://www.dececcousa.com/Pasta/soup-shapes/ > and "short shapes" page < http://www.dececcousa.com/Pasta/Short-Shapes/ > can give you some more ideas.

Definetly use whole wheat pasta. You could start him out with just a little evoo and parm cheese sprinkle on it.

Just make it how you normally would make it, and see if he eats it.
Sure, use whole grain. Healthier.

Use the lasagna recipe, that is on the box. That is what I do. Its good.

They sell small pasta, like tiny little star shaped ones that work well for a baby. My brother used to love that mixed with cottage cheese. Your son likes lasagna? That is amazing that he can handle all those textures.

There are a lot of kid friendly recipes here: www.weelicious.com