Make “dessert pasta” for your favorite pasta lovers. We have a delicious selection of dessert pasta recipes.

After looking at our selection of dessert pasta, reader Katelyn Cronin submitted her own, easy-to-make idea.

> National Dessert Day is October 14th.

> National Pasta Day is October 17th.
 
 
RECIPE: VANILLA SHELLS, AN EASY DESSERT PASTA RECIPE

Katelyn makes this recipe with small shells, but you can try one jumbo shell per person, stuffed with ice cream.

You can choose a flavor other than vanilla, but make it a good pairing with the pasta. Banana, Butter Pecan, Chocolate, Dulce de Leche, Peanut Butter, Rum Raisin, and Salted Caramel sound good to us.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COOK the shells with sugar, vanilla extract, and optional rum or brandy extract.

2. Drain; cool as desired. If the shells are warm, the ice cream will melt into them more readily.

3. SERVE in a festive dish, a sundae dish, or a wine goblet with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Garnish as desired.

[1] More uses for pasta: in a pasta dessert (photo by Nicolas Raymond | SXC).

[2] Top the shells with vanilla ice cream (photo © Graeter’s).

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Dee Dee’s Gourmet Cheese Straws are
great with a beer. Photo by Hannah
Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

• Spicy cheese straws from Dee Dee’s Gourmet, in a reusable gift tin

• Lucero artisan olive oil, made by a grandfather, father and son team in California

• Beautiful heirloom beans from California’s Rancho Gordo, for dads who like to cook

• Porto Mangiare Meatball Mix, for dads who cook a little bit—it makes delicious beef or turkey meatballs (there’s a gluten-free version, too)

And more!

See the tasty choices.

Today’s iced teas include herbal varieties
like this hibiscus Superflower Tea
from RepublicOfTea.com.

While iced tea is not traditional in that stronghold of tea-drinkers, China, it has gained popularity over the past 30 years thanks to canned and bottled tea.

Many Americans enjoy sweetener in their tea, but “sweetened tea” is different from “sweet tea,” a Southern tradition. It is brewed strong, and served presugared (and heavily sugared) and served hot or iced (there are a brands of bottled tea that specialize in “sweet tea”).

There’s an iced tea maker from West Bend that has a “sweetness chamber” for sugar, so the sugar can be brewed right into the tea! The tea brews into a pitcher, ready to cool down with ice (or, you can drink it hot).

Some sources cite that iced tea was invented, or at least popularized, at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis by Richard Blechynden, a tea plantation owner. The story goes that no one wanted his hot tea due to the heat; so he found ice and created iced tea—an instant hit. Given the historic record, however, this story is apocryphal.

Check out our Gourmet Tea Section for our favorite bottled teas and recipes, including lavender iced tea and tea cocktails.

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