08/24/2026
🍝 Recipe of the Week: Meatless Melty Mostaccioli + Berry Cool Cream Soda 🍅
This week, kids in Sticky Fingers Cooking classes across the country are whipping up a delicious, classic dish: Meatless Melty Mostaccioli! "Benvenuto" (Ben-veh-NOO-toe) or "Welcome" in Italian! Mostaccioli (moh-stah-CHOH-lee) is an Italian baked pasta dish traditionally consisting of tomato, meat, and cheese baked to perfection with long tubular pasta. First, with Chef Instructor help, our kid chefs will bring water and salt to boil for the pasta, then boil the penne for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, kids will roughly chop mushrooms, then drain the pasta, reserving a 1/2 cup of the pasta water, and place the pasta in a large bowl with butter and Parmesan cheese, tossing to combine and setting aside. Then our kid chefs will measure and add tomato paste, oregano, and black pepper to the bowl of mushrooms and mix. Next, kids will saute the mushroom mixture, then add the reserved pasta water and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Our kid chefs will place a scoop of pasta on each plate and top it with the mushroom and tomato sauce before sprinkling with mozzarella cheese. "Buon appetito" (Bwohn ap-peh-TEE-toe) or "Enjoy your meal" in Italian!
To wash it all down, our kids will create Berry Cool Cream Soda! Kids will chop up frozen berries as finely as possible and place them in the bottom of a pitcher. Then they will measure and pour in sparkling water, heavy whipping cream, and sugar or honey. Using an immersion blender or whisk, kids will blend up the drink and serve!
✨ Hands-on, full of flavor, and fun – this week’s recipe keeps kids active, engaged and discovering new cuisines. "Mangia bene!" ("Eat well"), as they say in Italy!
