These days I spend a lot of time on the phone and on Facebook with my daughter. We talk about how she and her husband are doing; he has been furloughed, while she is working full-time at home, writing social studies curricula online for charter schools. We also come up with ideas about cooking. Recently she made a beef stew in her Crock Pot with some frozen tri-tip beef, lots of vegetables, a white wine she’d not loved, some rice vinegar and chicken stock (she was out of beef stock).

The day before she made a pasta primavera, and I mentioned that I had not made that in a few years and couldn’t remember the recipe (she rarely uses recipes). I, too, have tons of veggies so I looked for the recipe on my computer files. I was surprised that the sauce had some delicious ingredients.

I also said Sirio Maccioni of New York City’s Le Cirque created pasta primavera. He died April 20 at nearly 90 years old.

I didn’t have a real recipe either, except for the one below, with just four ingredients and I sautéed whatever vegetables I had at that time, fresh or frozen, in extra-virgin olive oil, but treated them differently. Carrots and cauliflower take maybe 20 minutes; onions, garlic, sweet peppers, chopped green and yellow squash, sweet corn and frozen peas take less time.

I added the vegetables and sauce recipe to hot cooked pasta, topping with grape tomatoes (grape tomatoes need almost no cooking at all) and tossed it all together.

If the cookbook below is still available (check the Book Barn in Niantic when it reopens if it is not), this is one you might like to have on your shelf.

Easy Pasta Primavera

Adapted from Marie Simmons’ “365 Ways to Cook Pasta,” 1988.

Serves 4 to 6

1 egg

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

16 ounces of your favorite pasta

1 tablespoon chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley

Sautéed vegetables of choice

Fill a very large pot with water and bring to a boil to cook pasta. In the meantime, in a large serving bowl, beat egg, cream and parmesan cheese together.

Once the pasta is al dente, drain the pasta and pour it into the egg, heavy cream and cheese mixture. Toss to coat. Add vegetables and parsley; toss and serve.

On the Side

I have known Jerry Fischer for many years. He is my go-to person when our local school superintendent asks me for the dates of Jewish holidays so we don't schedule meetings on those nights.

So, on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, Jerry mentioned that his grown-up daughter was working upstairs in his Waterford home, marketing her new cheese cracker. He asked if I wanted to try one; I said to drop a package on the bench outside my condo.

Four days later, there were four huge boxes, together six feet high, sent via FedEx, from Fairfield, N.J. I tugged them in and opened large boxes of Whisps. I opened one package of tomato basil cheese crisps, and fell in love. Each package is two servings and is 100 percent cheese, gluten-free, well under five carbs and 12 grams of protein. They are available as Asiago pepper jack, tangy ranch, Parmesan, cheddar, barbecue bacon, nacho and tomato basil. BJs and Costco sell them.

Lee White lives in Groton. She can be reached at leeawhite@aol.com.