A simple dish of lightly seasoned pasta with potatoes, onions and peas. Simple, filling, comfort food and one of my year-round favorites, but a great option for Lent too.

Pasta with Peas and Potatoes

Lent has arrived, so I'll be sharing some very simple, non-recipe "recipes" over the next couple weeks to add to my list of Lent-friendly meal ideas. Some you will likely be familiar with already for Lent, others may be a reminder of recipes you've forgotten about.

Most of them, like this one, actually come from the Depression-era, when meals were simple, cheap, filling and meat free. They are actually meals that I eat throughout the year, especially if I'm on my own for dinner.

 

Fresh carrots, pearl onions and sweet green peas, slow simmered in butter and finished with a toss of fresh herbs.

Classic Buttered Peas and Carrots

I am a vegetable lover and frankly, there are very few that I don't like. Brussels sprouts would be one.

Oh, I'll eat them, and I've even tried them multiple ways to put them up on the blog since many of you do enjoy them, but they just aren't in my top favorites. Other than that, I pretty much love any vegetables, including carrots and peas, and I especially love this classic combination of the two, slow simmered in butter and finished with some fresh herbs.

Classic peas and pasta salad, made with tiny shell pasta and dressed with homemade buttermilk Ranch, spicy mustard, dill, red onion, cubed cheese, bacon and gently tossed with tuna fillets.

Peas and Pasta Salad with Tuna

Okay y'all. I know everybody's in fall mode, sharing their favorite apple recipes, and pumpkin recipes won't be far behind - if they haven't started up already. Heck, we're only in the high 80s this week here in South Mississippi, so that's practically fall weather here, far as we are concerned. But... I'm gonna squeeze in at least one more "summer" recipe before the calendar tells me it's officially fall.

A heritage recipe, today's English Pea Salad is made up of frozen or canned peas, mixed, at minimum, with celery and onion, and dressed with a mayonnaise or sour cream based dressing. I've added some bacon, dill and chopped boiled eggs in mine here, but it's wide open for personalization.

Old Fashioned Cold English Pea Salad

Cold Pea Salad is another holiday dish you may remember from your grandma's kitchen during the major holidays. Called English Pea Salad, it's more widely known these days as simply Cold Pea Salad, and is a long held holiday favorite, though it's really a great side dish for anytime of the year.

A vegetable medley casserole with a classic mixture of pimentos, carrots, peas and corn, transformed with a few simple seasonings and a fabulous cream sauce into a wonderful vegetable casserole, topped here with panko.

Mixed Vegetable Casserole

One of the most popular canned peas in this part of The Deep South is a petit pois variety, literally translated from French as little pea. They are the tiniest, sweetest little baby peas and not at all cheap either, but when you realize just how many peas have to be shelled to just feed a single person, like fresh crabmeat and pecans, you appreciate the labor that goes into them and happily pay the price because you understand. The petit pois have a very short fresh season, only a few weeks in early June, so we enjoy them mostly canned down here. These are the tiny little peas that usually grace the southern holiday table and thanks to their delectable sweetness, I'm not at all surprised. We do love sweet in The South.

Bowtie pasta and peas with bacon, a southernized version of the Italian dish Butterflies and Peas or Farfalle con Piselli.

Bowtie Pasta and Peas with Bacon

This bowtie pasta and peas with bacon dish is a totally un-authentic and highly Southernized version of Butterflies (Bowtie Pasta) and Peas, known as Farfalle con Piselli, a classic Italian pasta dish.

It's a super easy and fast but tasty skillet pasta dish I think you'll really enjoy, well if you enjoy peas like me that is!

A simple pasta dish with carrots and peas and a light tomato sauce made with tomato paste.

Giada's Pasta with Carrots and Peas

This is a meatless dish that I watched Giada de Laurentiis make one day on the Food Network channel. She used linguine, but I didn't have any in the pantry, so I used a combination of Barilla Plus and regular spaghetti pasta.

Southern-style creamed petit pois or green peas cooked in a light roux made with bacon drippings and butter.

Southern Style Creamed Peas

Break out that jar of bacon fat ya got in the fridge for this one, cuz we're startin' with a roux!