When it comes to weeknight cooking, pasta rules in our household. A hot dish of pasta, cooked up quickly, with a sprinkling of fresh cheese and herbs or a quick sausage sauce — it has all the fullness of a truly homecooked meal, with the ease of takeout. Here are twenty-two (yes, twenty-two!) pasta dishes from our archives that are fast, fresh, and just right for now.
Most of these are very quick, like eat in an hour sort of quick. Others take a little extra preparation, but if you roast squash or simmer a sauce the night before, it can feed you a couple meals during the week.
TOP ROW
• 1 Pasta with Brown Butter and Fried Sage
• 2 Pasta with Mint Pesto, Peas and Ricotta Salata
• 3 Velvety Broccoli and Feta Pasta
• 4 Pasta alla Norma
• 5 Rich No-Cream Wild Mushroom Pasta Sauce
SECOND ROW
• 6 Orecchiette with Sausage and Kale
• 7 Easy Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
• 8 3-Sausage Pasta Sauce
• 9 Pasta Carbonara
• 10 Anelletti Pasta with Sausage and Greens
THIRD ROW
• 11 Quick Lunch Pasta with Greens, Mushrooms and Meats
• 12 Italian Chicken Salad...Pasta
• 13 Roasted Garlic, Olive and Tomato Pasta Salad
• 14 Lemony Ricotta Pasta with Basil
• 15 Lemon Pepper Pasta with Capers
FOURTH ROW
• 16 Pasta with Pesto
• 17 Basic Tomato Sauce (with Optional Zing!)
• 18 Pasta with Butternut Squash, Sage, and Pine Nuts
• 19 Greek Chicken Pasta with Olives and Feta
• 20 Spinach Pesto Pasta with Fresh Peas and Mushrooms
BOTTOM ROW
• 21 Ridiculously Quick Pasta al Pomodoro
• 22 Broccoli and Feta Pasta Salad
Originally published September 3, 2009.
Related: Twelve Steps To a Better Pasta Salad
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This is probably my favorite fast pasta recipe ever: Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Lemon Pata. The sauce (goat cheese olive oil lemon juice) is melted by the hot pasta. So easy and soooo delicious!
Love these roundup posts! So many of these recipes look great.
Thanks for the roundup!
My favorite is to cook tortellini (or whatever) and in a separate pan saute sausage and sun-dried tomatoes in a bit of olive oil. After pasta is cooked, throw it into the saute pan with the meat and add a healthy handful of parmesan.
My favorite sausage to use is Trader Joe's sun-dried tomato chicken sausage.
(And if I have some, Penzey's pasta sprinkle adds a nice bright flavor to the cooking sausage.)
Pasta is SOOOOO easy and is my default meal on those weeknights when I failed to plan ahead or when things go awry. Even if its just doused with olive oil and parmesan-it never fails to please.
They all look great -- I don't know where to start!
(Actually, I'll start by printing a whole bunch of these.)
Fettuccine (or similar long pasta) with green veggies (asparagus and/or green beans are my faves), lemon zest, lemon juice, and garlic with some sour cream and grated parmesan added at the end is amazing!
Pioneer woman makes hers and calls it creamy lemon pasta or something like that, but I heard a lemon pasta version on the Splendid Table, so I just combined the two!
Sometimes I even add leftover cooked and sliced boiled potatoes. Mmmmm...
I usually like my pasta covered in some kind of cheese or heavy cream, so this is a "light" pasta for me! Lol...
I make this greens and ricotta pasta often:
http://abcdsofcooking.blogspot.com/2009/06/kalebroccoliricotta-pasta.html