You have rushed home from work and need to have dinner on the table in 15 minutes. What is quick, easy, and something your family will love? Pasta will usually fit the bill. One cup of cooked pasta contains approximately 200 calories, one gram of fat and less than twenty milligrams of sodium. It is also low in cholesterol and high in complex carbohydrates. Choose whole-wheat pasta and get four grams of fiber per one cup. Add a salad and steamed vegetables, top your pasta with a robust red sauce and you can have quite a nutritious and delicious dinner that is ready in minutes. The side salad and vegetables count as two vegetable servings, plus one cup of sauce adds another two servings. This is a total of three vegetable servings in a meal that requires minimal preparation. Also, for men, the lycopene in the cooked tomato sauce may help reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

What you choose to top off your pasta can make a difference in whether your “healthy” pasta dish remains a great choice or becomes a dining disaster. Here are some saucy suggestions to guide you in your choice of toppings:

• Salt accentuates the flavor of tomato sauce. Therefore, many spaghetti sauces are soaring with sodium. As a rule, choose sauces that do not exceed 550 milligrams of sodium per one-half cup serving. Leave the salt out of the water when you are cooking your pasta.


• Most sauces, unless they are cream, pesto, meat, or cheese-based, do not add significant amounts of fat to your meal. It is easy to find sauces with no more than two grams of fat per serving.


• Add sautéed mushrooms, grated carrots, sliced squash, or broccoli florets to your pasta sauce to further boost its nutritional value.


• Sprinkle your bowl of pasta with a small amount of low fat Parmesan cheese. Each tablespoon adds two grams of fat.