Anything creamy is going to occlude the pasta colors. However, for a kugel/lasagna no-tomato cross, I'd nix the lemon (that pasta already tastes weird enough for me :) and, along with your ricotta/egg, add something like sauteed onion and mushroom slices... and maybe some crumbled bacon.... and maybe some baby spinach leaves.

ETA: or was the question about what I would add to the lemon/ricotta/egg/chicken sausage version?

^^^what she said. Especially about the lemon. Maybe mix in farmers cheese and egg to make the sauce slightly looser and creamier. Not sure about the sweet sausage. I'd keep the flavors savory.

Yes, I meant what you yourself would put in it. Or what you would put in with what I mentioned. Or whatever.

Do you really think the pasta has that much flavor? I don't use colored pastas that much, but unless it's that dark green spinach fettucini, I don't notice a huge flavor difference. Though I haven't tried this kind yet. Beet, tomato, turmeric and ... probably spinach (I forget). They're pastel. :)

I hadn't considered that a creamy sauce would hide the colors, but that's a good point. I started thinking kugel with the custard base, and imagining the colors kind of sticking out, but with too creamy a sauce, it would just stick and cover them up, huh?

Yes, as Olychick said, I meant sweet as opposed to hot sausage. That's what it always says on the labels. This particular kind is very moist and tasty. Lots of spices, just not hot.

My regular meat lasagna has a lot of strong flavors. My pumpkin lasagna is much more delicate so the pumpkin shines. That's where I got the idea of the lemon herb ricotta. It's my own recipe, but really good. Now, I'm reconsidering the lemon.

My basil and Italian parsley didn't survive the cold and the gardener cut back the tarragon. That leaves me with lots of rosemary, oregano, thyme, mint and sage. Or dried. There's a little curly parsley but it looks wan, and I don't want to disturb it on the chance it'll come back if left alone.

I'm thinking about greens. I don't know if I would go bitter, which is why it's such a shame about the basil. I probably have some wild arugula in the fridge. Or, that is, I have some, but don't know if it's past its prime. That's more peppery than bitter, and my all time favorite. I could chop it up and use it instead of basil. If it's still nice.

A little voice is whispering in my ear that I should make a sweet noodle kugel with raisins, apples and almond slivers, but I tell it to hush and have a cookie. I don't like sweet noodle kugel, for the most part.

I'd keep the lemon, make a very light sauce and go for a "prima vera" kind of thing with vegetables that would add flavor and texture, maybe asparagus would be nice.

Annie

Annie, as I was reading through this topic, "Pasta Primavera" came to mind. Your suggestion sounds good to me. :-)

You're right. The pasta would be beautiful in a pasta primavera.

It's the kind of pasta you can't eat much of....its very toothy ....I like the sound of something light like primavera.

I was wrong about it being gemelli. I looked closer ant it's actually teeny tiny Shirley Temple curls. :)

butternut squash as an add-in? your sausage chicken would pair nicely with that. I've made many a lasagna with squash, spinach and a chicken-sausage, but we're weird here ... darn comfort food anyway ...

Piping up to suggest adding a good dose of freshly ground black pepper (yes!) to that sweet kugel to zing it up. It's not my invention. It's Jerusalem style kugel. It takes more than a cookie to silence that little voice.

Dave, my pumpkin lasagna is comfort food, and not "healthy". :)

Wintercat, do you mean the raisins, apples and almond slivers? I can imagine pepper in that. That actually makes it sound better, though the cookie worked. :)

Yes. It's sweet and hot and delicious.

Zucchini and some grated carrot, mostly for color. Not a lot of carrot because I don't think I would want the sweetness.

Asparagus as Annie mentioned would be very good, too. Also agree that lemon would be nice if you use asparagus.

Some of us like our noodle pudding on the savory side. I like it both ways. Bubbe made it pretty dry with maybe a shake or two of cinnamon sugar on top and that was it for sweetness. But that's because my dad was picky and didn't like raisins in anything. That's the kind you would season with just maybe pepper and a dash of nutmeg. But I wouldn't use the colored pasta with that kind, unless I was adding other flavors. The key to the simple kugels are their simplicity.

I used the colored pasta and sausage for a basic cheese pasta bake because I had some cheese that needed dealing with and I had the oomph to bother. I did learn from it, however, that a lot of the vibrancy comes off in the water--something I knew might happen. I only soaked it in hot, rather than boiling, because I was making the casserole, and the water turned very red. I think one of the reds may have lost most of its color, and the other colors just faded a bit. Because of the pungent, salty cheeses, I pushed flavor into the ricotta, including lemon juice, pepper and sage. It was very tasty, and the pasta held up very well, retaining its tooth. Perhaps too well for a proper kugel anyway. But it won't do what I was thinking of, which is look a bit like cake sprinkles. :)

Thank-you all for the ideas, suggestions, reinterpretations, etc.!

ETA: The pasta would be perfect for Primavera or pasta salad.