Pasta and Noodle Recipes & Ideas

“Glorious” is truly the proper word to describe Domenica Marchetti’s new collection of Italian pasta recipes, The Glorious Pasta of Italy. As Exhibit A, I present to you a fast vegetarian dish with all the luxury you would find in the best restaurant in town. It’s a dish for any time of the year: linguine with a garlicky pesto of walnuts, Parmesan, and ricotta.This pasta is one of the nicest things I’ve eaten in ages.

Growing up on the coast of Southern California, I was pretty far removed from my father’s native Brooklyn neighborhood. However my Mississippi-born mother made sure to close some of that distance with one delicious Jewish recipe she adapted from her mother-in-law. Savory noodle kugel is as comforting and cozy as it gets.Like all great casseroles, kugel has many variations, incarnations and riffs.

The New Year brings different traditions for different folks. Some make black-eyed peas, others make firm resolutions. I make chicken stock. There’s something wonderfully industrious about making homemade stock, and this year on New Year’s Day, that’s where I found myself. I find that the soups I make throughout the year are rather predictable. In the fall, puréed soups have their day in the sun.

There’s something soul-satisfying about a warm casserole straight from the oven. Whether I’m making my grandma’s chicken spaghetti (made with Velveeta and Rotel) or my favorite King Ranch (from scratch), I know all served will leave with full hearts and happy stomachs. The casseroles I grew up on were definitely retro — the recipes all came from my elementary school’s cookbook Candlelight and Wisteria (I know, how Southern, right?

I’ve mentioned it here before and I’ll mention it again—my tastes have come a long way since high school. I lived off chicken fingers and cheese sticks in those days, with a few chocolate malts in between. (Thanks, Mom and Dad, for that high speed metabolism!) In my small Alabama town, it was a huge deal when the mass chain restaurants finally popped up along our little sliver of the interstate.

With the arrival of longer, warmer days, I’m craving light and refreshing meals – the kind that take advantage of new spring produce and leave plenty of energy for an after-dinner walk to enjoy the extended sunshine and new blossoms around the neighborhood. A soba noodle salad fits the bill, and this one features seasonal gifts like tender asparagus and peppery radishes, watercress, and chives.

Excited for spring but still waiting for beautiful produce to show up at the farmers’ market? Try this bridge between seasons – a creamy yet light pasta dish filled with roasted veggies and a balsamic sauce.This is a pasta salad meets dinner dish – toss hot pasta with a slew of roasted veggies and coat with a tart, sweet, and just a little spicy balsamic dressing. You’d be just fine if you wanted to stop there, but what’s a great pasta dish without something creamy?

My favorite appetizers are simple affairs: easy to make, easy to eat. These elegant little cucumber cups fit the bill quite nicely, with the added bonus of making it appear as though they were much more difficult to make than they were. Paired with a gin & tonic, these are a total dinner party win. Cucumbers and soba are a classic pairing and one that never gets old for me.

Pasta salad can mean a lot of things to a lot of people; down South, we’ve certainly made “macaroni salad” our own. Heirloom recipes sometimes include onions, celery, hard-boiled eggs, pickles, or sweet relish, and you can always count on a heaping dollop of mayonnaise, of course! The creamy classic certainly has its place at the table — often at a few select barbecue establishments and meat-and-threes — but other times it just seems outdated.

I am a self-declared pasta junkie (make that Italian food junkie), but have tendency to forget all about it during the warmer weather months. I often delegate these coveted carbs to fall and winter, when I am craving a hearty lasagna or a rich bolognese. I recently had an Aha! moment when I realized that fresh summer vegetables are just begging to be paired with pastas of all kinds—and not just in the obvious pasta salad.

Among the other flamboyantly garnished and highly aromatic plates being handed around the table at a Thai dinner a few weeks ago, this one seemed rather Plain Jane. An unassuming bowl of slippery noodles sprinkled with what looked like crispy pork and crushed peanuts? But one bite was all it took — it was love at first spicy-tangy-sweet forkful. Since that fateful dinner, I’ve become rather obsessed with this Thai noodle dish.

To me, at this moment in time, hiyashi chuka just makes sense. Not only is the Japanese chilled noodle salad absolutely refreshing – a must during these sweltering days of summer – but it also features the sweetest, crispest vegetables available at the market right now: tomatoes, corn, cucumbers. Plus a light and tangy sauce that takes no time to whip up. Hiyashi is typically made with chilled ramen noodles, also known as chuka soba.

Pasta casseroles are perhaps the ultimate combination of weeknight convenience and homey comfort food. Casseroles like this one don’t take long to cook, and they can be put together the day before and baked or warmed up at the end of a long day. And yet these pasta bakes are comforting and delicious. This one has a double dose of spinach, spoonfuls of pesto, and, yes, plenty of cheese. It’s a whole meal in one dish.

Egg noodles and curry might seem like an unlikely combination, but if you’ve ever tried the Burmese-influenced Thai dish khao soi, you know the two were meant to be. A popular street dish in Northern Thailand, khao soi isn’t often found in restaurants abroad, but not to worry.

A bowl of plain pasta noodles just won’t do; this simple base begs for a tasty topping. Should you ever find yourself at a sauce loss, here are a few ideas. From a no-fail pesto recipe to a shredded pork and mustard cream sauce (yes indeed!), from a classic Bolognese to a basic Béchamel, these 10 sauces are the perfect pairing for your next pasta dinner.

The other night, contemplating how best to discuss cheese within the confines of our pasta-themed week at The Kitchn, I envisioned a cheddar-laden dish. Forget the parm or the pecorino, I thought. How would cheddar be in pasta? The answer, I can assure you, is worthy of a writeup. As is the recipe, which makes cheddar sing. Pasta and parm go together so seamlessly, it seems silly to even question using any other cheese as a finisher.

Trying to reproduce a beloved relative’s signature dish is often futile, especially when recipes are unrecorded and our dear ones are no longer with us. In this case, I was inspired by my father-in-law’s kalguksu, or Korean “knife noodles,” despite the fact that I sadly never got to meet him nor taste the noodles that my partner remembers so fondly. While my version could never match the original, I think I can safely say these noodles are a fabulous comfort food.

I recently had the best Pad Thai of my life. It was one of those restaurant meals where the person cooking takes us under her wing and simply says, “How about I just cook for you?” Chef Ngamprom “Hong” Thaimee of Ngam in NYC’s East Village then brought out plate after plate of regional Thai cuisine from her native Chiang Mai, Thailand, and I was floored.

If you happen to be into chick flicks, which I am, then maybe you love the Christmas movie The Holiday as much as me? (Unfortunately I have to watch it alone, because it doesn’t meet my fiancé’s manly standards.) In one scene in particular, Kate Winslet offers to whip up some “Christmas fettuccine” for Jack Black, who is in need of some much-needed cheer.

It’s been months since I yanked basil from the ground and whizzed up some pesto. When basil is in season, I’m slathering it on everything from pasta to crostini to eggs, to the point where it is a kitchen staple. What happens when that pesto-craving hits, but your window-box is bare and the market only has sad limp little bouquets of basil? Get creative. It turns out you can make pesto out of just about anything.

Hello! Erin from The Forest Feast here, bringing you the second recipe in my series of Farmers Market Feasts for the month of May. There is a fantastic little seasonal farmers market that recently began down the road from me in the mountains. I try to go every week, and I’ve been getting to know the farmers, which is fun! This week I picked up some green garlic and fresh basil to make a creamy avocado pesto. The basil they had at the market was called “sacred basil.

Lately all of my favorite food websites and blogs have been awash in the bright, fresh colors of spring. From crisp asparagus to sweet fresh peas, there are signs of abundant warm-weather vegetables and salads everywhere I look. While my senses love it all, on cooler spring afternoons, comfort food is still the order of the day. So last weekend I pulled together this creamy baked orzo to have for a lazy lunch when lofty plans for hiking flew out the window at the first sign of a drizzle.

This past February, I had the extreme good fortune of accompanying my family (or, really, inviting myself) on a vacation to St. Barthes. February in Seattle is one of the darker months, so this was a most welcome break. Since St. Barthes is an island with limited produce deliveries from the mainland, it was a common occurrence that restaurants or grocery stores would be out of a dish or ingredient “until the next boat comes.” There was little urgency about it; people just made do.

The first time I discovered ramen noodle salad was a culinary revelation. (Yes, those 99-cent ramen noodles.) It was sweet, tangy, and crunchy all at the same time, and it was a far cry from the creamy Southern slaws of my youth. Needless to say, I was hooked. I didn’t get my first taste of ramen noodle salad until a few years ago, but apparently it has been appearing at church potlucks and picnics for quite some time. Who knew?! (Apparently not me.

From lasagna roll-ups to easy turkey chili – we’ve got your comfy winter weeknight recipes covered this week. If you’re looking for a hearty side dish for dinner, you definitely need to check out the hasselback potatoes. They’re crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside — so good! If you’re in the mood for something a little sweet, try the fudgy hazelnut rye brownies or the brown butter apple loaf.

The idea for this quick-and-easy skillet dish came to me after a chat with my grocery’s cheesemonger — proof that inspiration truly is all around us. Not only does it get dinner on the table in minutes using a couple of pantry ingredients, but leftovers reheat like a dream. I have the luxury of working from home a few days a week, but just because I develop recipes all day doesn’t mean I always have delicious — or even complete — meals at my disposal.

Homemade pasta dough is one of my labors of love, usually reserved for weekends or special occasions. Otherwise, we skip pasta or rely on the dried variety for a quick weeknight dinner. Either way, homemade ravioli has definitely never been a weekday option — that is, until I discovered wonton wrappers. I’ve been experimenting with making ravioli using wonton wrappers, and I’m happy to report I’m pleased with the results.

There are few things more satisfying after a busy fall day than coming home to a warm and creamy casserole loaded with saucy buffalo chicken, tender pasta, and a double dose of cheese. It’s a pasta bake that’s equally at home feeding a family of four as it is fueling a high school football team. And whether you’re headed into a late-night study session or a Saturday tailgate, this recipe is what you want by your side.

Bust out your slow cooker, dust off your roasting pans, and start filling your shopping cart with root vegetables. It’s that odd time of year when it’s still hot in places, but cozier food is definitely returning. Try waking up to a berry-banana breakfast smoothie bowl and then move on down to the stuffed-lasagna spaghetti squash or stuffed eggplants for lunch or dinner.

Who cooks here: Anna Watson Carl of The Yellow Table & Brandon Carl See the kitchen: Anna’s Yellow Table Kitchen Where: Manhattan, New York Rent or Own? Rent This week we’ve been looking into the extra-small but big-hearted kitchen of Anna Watson Carl in New York City. One of Anna’s favorite things in the world is throwing last-minute dinner parties. The kind where she casually calls a few friends and says, “What are you doing tonight? Want to come over for dinner?

I have two schools of thought on pasta recipes: they should either be an event or they should take no time at all. When I want to make an event out of pasta, I’ll make my own fresh pasta with a homemade sauce (and homemade ricotta, if I’m making lasagna!). These recipes take all evening and are usually accompanied by a bottle of wine. But for the other times, I just want a quick pasta dish I can get to the table without much fuss.

I teach pasta-from-scratch cooking classes a few times a week, so I have plenty of recipes for luxurious cream sauces and all-day ragùs in my arsenal. But most nights, I don’t actually feel like rolling and cutting my own pasta or making a labor-intensive, cream-laden sauce. For dinners at home, I often look to my freezer and pantry for a quick fix. This recipe uses up ingredients I always try to have on hand because, together or separately, they seem to have infinite uses.

Manicotti can be a hassle to make, but when you make several batches to stash in the freezer, you can stretch your efforts over several meals. This dish, redolent with sweet and chewy sun-dried tomatoes is perfect comfort food for cold winter nights. I also love serving meatless meals. It’s a great way for us to curb our grocery spending.

Put your cast iron skillet to work tonight — make this quick dinner, with its hearty mix of soft gnocchi, roasted sweet potatoes, earthy kale, and goat cheese. Late in winter, it’s easy to fall into a midweek pasta rut. Gnocchi, those pillowy potato dumplings, take less than half the time to prepare and are the ideal alternative for your comfort food fix.

When my children were younger, on nights we left them with a sitter to go out for a little adult time, I would leave simple meals — the kinds of dishes my husband and I were far too sophisticated to enjoy. Or so I thought. One night, the sitter canceled at the last minute — after I had already made a box of mac and cheese with frozen peas and a can of tuna. My husband took a bite. “What is this? Why have you never made this before? This is delicious!” Um, oops.

The pasta dish pizzoccheri hails from the town of Valtellina in the Lombardy region of Italy, which shares borders with Switzerland. The alpine region has cold winters, but hardy vegetables — like potatoes and cabbage — survive them. Thus, this simple dish incorporates both, along with butter and cheese for surprisingly delicious results. Yes, potatoes and pasta really do work well together — just try it and see!

One of the most important qualities of a great lunch is its appeal at the midday hour, when you’re tempted to go out with colleagues or eat at that new burger stand instead of reaching for the container waiting for you in the office fridge. We’re exploring five great recipes this week from Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbooks, and part of what makes them so good is exactly this appeal. If I make a recipe from an Ottolenghi book, I really can’t wait to eat it at lunch.

Before it gets too warm out, let’s roast bunch of vegetables and throw them on some spicy soba noodles. The mushrooms are topped with a tamari-honey glaze and then roasted in the oven. There’s also a ton of greens (broccolini! kale!) in this recipe for good measure. New favorite lunch recipe, anyone? I especially love eating soba for leftover lunches. It’s a nice alternative to standard grain salads, but it really don’t take any extra work.

Radishes are one of my favorite vegetables; their peppery bite and heated pink color make them one of the best things at the early summer farmers market. But they are so underutilized; they’re the last thing to go on the veggie platter, or dutifully chopped into salads. But radishes are capable of so much more! When we picked out recipes for our radish mini series this week, we looked for dishes that showed a different dimension to the cutest root.

Zoodles (zucchini noodles) are all the rage these days, and for good reason. They’re light, refreshing, and the perfect way to eat up all the zucchini growing in your garden (or showing up in your CSA box) this summer. They are great as a low-carb alternative to pasta, or — like here — can simply serve as a crunchy complement to green tea soba noodles. The good news: You don’t need any fancy equipment, like a spiralizer, to make these zucchini noodles.

Save the heavy kugels for another Shabbat and make this Middle Eastern-inspired couscous dish instead! Summer isn’t complicated. A summery Shabbat dinner shouldn’t be either. For this easy side dish, I always grab a bunch of crisp, peppery scallions at the farmers market, then soften them in olive oil alongside buttery pine nuts until everything is golden. Then I toss them together with couscous that has been simmered in vegetable broth and a handful of golden raisins.

Adjust spiciness and the amount of raw garlic (there is a fair amount!) in the sauce to your liking. Grilled lamb chops or steak are exquisite next to this pasta, or simply enjoy it with a plate of summer-ripe tomatoes, drizzled with a bit of olive oil. I was very intrigued by this pasta sauce, which has a blended base of milk, sour cream, tahini, and lemon juice. It tasted like a very nutty and bright version of a classic cream sauce, and it worked well when mixed with the whole-grain pasta.

One of life’s greatest dilemmas is deciding whether to make pad Thai or spring rolls for dinner. Pad Thai is warm and comforting, while spring rolls are crisp and light — but what if you’re in the mood for both? Now, thanks to these pad Thai spring rolls, you don’t have to choose. You start by tossing rice noodles in the signature sweet-tangy pad Thai sauce, made with tamarind, soy sauce, sugar, and lime.

These Indo-Chinese Hakka noodles were a staple of my student life. They’re a classic Indian street food and also make the perfect quick and easy midweek dinner — one that is equally child- and adult-friendly. You can make it vegetarian, like I have, or add shredded chicken, pork, and seafood. Besides being a one-wok dish, which minimizes cleanup time, the best thing about these noodles is you can vary the vegetables to suit the season.