Pasta Recipes & Meal Ideas

I’ve been craving a lot of pasta recipes lately, especially recipes that use rigatoni. I love the way the ridges of the pasta help support the sauce and flavor of any dish. This recipe from Healthy Recipe Ecstasy uses interesting ingredients that sound highly flavorful and satisfying. It’s a perfect companion for a Friday night. This pasta dish has three main ingredients outside of the rigatoni: sausage, fennel and eggplant. It’s also smothered in tomato and cheese.

Let’s talk about lasagna — the easy way. Lasagna at its most time-consuming is a labor of love, made with homemade sauce, slow-cooked meat, and perhaps Mama’s handmade noodles. This is a treat, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t also do it quicker from time to time. These four skillet lasagnas show us how. These four skillet lasagnas get creative.

There comes a point in summer when I start getting tired of all the goopy, mayonnaise-thick side salads that are standard fare at every cook-out and picnic. I wanted something a little different to bring to the table on a recent summer excursion, so I thought we’d perk up a bowl of traditional macaroni salad with barbecue sauce. Oh. My. Yes. Why haven’t I tried this before? I first tried making this salad with just barbecue sauce by itself, but that was a bit overwhelming.

Picnics, summer gatherings in your backyard, grilling in the park. All of these occasions require at least one macaroni salad to accompany all of those burgers and BBQ. Need some inspiration? These four bloggers have enough macaroni salad recipes to keep you entertaining all summer long. Do you have a go-to macaroni salad for summer? I like something with lots of vegetables and with minimum dairy so it can sit out a bit longer.

Want to throw all of your ingredients into a pot, walk away, and return to a cheesy, piping hot dinner? Yep, me too. A slow cooker makes easy work of “baked” pasta, minus the bake. To be honest I’ve never really quite understood the whole slow cooker phenomenon.

I love May when all the seasonal farmers markets start to open. For the next 4 weeks, I’ll be visiting the markets weekly near where I live in Northern California and buy ingredients to make a simple, vegetarian dish to share with you. This week there were gorgeous rainbow carrots at the market, along with lemons from a neighboring table. A fresh veggie fettuccine was definitely on the menu.

Here’s a simple little fall-time pasta dish with sweet roasted butternut squash and nutty brown butter. It’s one of those dishes that makes even a weeknight meal feel special, especially if you splurge for fresh fettuccine noodles and a nice bottle of wine. Serve it with a salad of bitter greens, apples, and walnuts on the side, and dinner is ready.

Have you ever caramelized fennel? Browning this vegetable in a skillet transforms it into something completely different from its crisp, raw state; all but a trace of the anise flavor melts away and the fennel becomes tender, mellow, and sweet. Caramelized fennel melds perfectly with the textures and flavors of nutty chickpeas, succulent olives, orange, and lemon – and spooned over couscous, it makes a quick-cooking, bright yet hearty dish.

Fettuccine alfredo is one of those dishes that is somehow more than the sum of its parts. Of course, when those parts are primarily butter, cream, cheese, and pasta, it’s extremely hard to go wrong. There are dozens of slightly different ways to make this dish. Parmesan and butter all on their own are traditional, but a splash of cream does have the advantage of making the alfredo extra delicious (not to mention indulgent).

This light creamy pasta comes together in fewer than 15 minutes and you’ll be amazed at its flavor. Bright lemon combines with deep garlic and a hint of heat to transform spinach, peas, and, of course, pasta. The key in this dish lies in simmering cream with garlic and red pepper flakes. It infuses the cream with deep flavor which cooks into the spinach as well. And what could be easier than throwing in a few frozen peas to add a little something extra?

Homemade macaroni and cheese is almost always a Good Thing, but is Martha Stewart’s recipe perhaps the best of all? Food52 has declared it a “genius recipe” One of the key elements is the mornay sauce that surrounds and permeates the pasta as it bakes. Flour, butter and milk are cooked into a béchamel to which grated sharp cheddar and Gruyere are added, resulting in a rich, creamy sauce that won’t break down during baking.

Wow. Have your ever had a gastronomic moment when you know you’re eating the best version of a particular dish? Eyes light up, noshing sounds commence and belly sighs exhale as fellow diners exclaim, “No THIS is the best!”, “Oh my God!” and “Praise Mac & Mornay!” This happened recently and thank goodness I had my camera and notebook to document and jot down the ultimate mac and mornay recipe.

Last night I made one of my favorite dinner-in-a-flash recipes: Ricotta dumplings. This is a lightning-quick recipe, easy to mix up, and easy to make for a crowd, too. I tossed these pillowy, chewy little dumpling squares with a bit of butter, soft goat cheese, and herbs fresh from the garden. They were ready in 15 minutes!This recipe is based on my earlier recipe for ricotta spaetzle. I love these so much; they are ready almost instantly.

Date night dinners need not be complicated to be fancy. Take this recipe: lasagna noodles trimmed into squares make elegant “open-faced” raviolis. With poached eggs nestled between the layers, some wilted greens, and a simple sauce of brown butter and lemon, this very simple dish becomes a date night win.Greens, garlic, and eggs are one of our very favorite flavor combinations. The bitterness of the greens is tempered by the rich egg yolk, while the garlic brings it all together.

With all the citrus that grows here in Southern California, we’re always searching for new ways to use these fruits – French toast, roasted vegetables, dust… We often add citrus zest to couscous dishes and this time we thought, why not add the juicy segments? Sweet pomelo was the perfect fruit for this experiment, and the result is a dish we can’t get enough of!

I had the privilege of learning this recipe from a very seasoned chef in Italy during a cooking class at his family restaurant. It was no surprise that he made creating this dish from scratch look simple. But after a few attempts (and mishaps) in my own kitchen, what surprises me now is that it’s something I can put together without looking at instructions.

This past weekend in San Francisco, the weather forecast was a bold one. Each news station insisted snow was on its way. People dug out their winter coats. Kids prepared for snow-man marathons. And I made a very fine casserole&mdash one with healthy whole-wheat pasta, Swiss chard, and goat cheese. It was definitely a casserole occasion as it hasn’t snowed in San Francisco since the 1970’s.

Heart of the ArtichokeTanis’ own kitchen ritualsDavid calls himself a restaurant chef that prefers to cook at home. Chez Panisse allows him to bring the best of home cooking to the tables there in the six months a year he cooks at the restaurant. The rest of the year he, presumably, is cooking up the dishes in this book (all beautifully and simply photographed by Christopher Hirsheimer of Canal House Cooking).

Everyone loves a good casserole, right? The key word here is good. We’ve all had goopy, unappetizing messes inflicted upon us in the name of casseroles, but that really should be the deviation — not the norm. I love casseroles — the good ones. In fact, I just spent a year writing an entire book with 225 recipes for modern, fresh casseroles. This recipe isn’t in the book, but it’s very much in the spirit of things.

This recipe was inspired by one of our favorite vegetable gratins—a combination of summer ingredients that you should eat now, before Fall arrives and you switch to pastas like this. (P.S. We’ve also made this dish without the bacon, and it’s just as good.)This pasta is a cinch to put together. But you can make it even easier by caramelizing the onion and cooking the bacon ahead of time.

We have given you a lot of tomato sauce recipes — we really, really love simple tomato sauces, whether they’re made with fresh tomatoes or canned. But I want to revisit one more easy sauce (and we have an even simpler sauce for you coming tomorrow). Lately, my favorite way to make tomato sauce is in the oven. The flavor — oh, it’s so much better! A long, slow roast for your tomatoes lets their flavor slowly concentrate into a chunky sauce.

We’ve had a string of cold and rainy spring days, so we’re craving something warm and comforting, yet still seasonal. Enter rapini – the bitter greens are a perfect match for white beans a little pasta in a dish that’s not the most beautiful, but is quite delicious.Rapini is nearing the end of its peak growing season in the northern hemisphere. We found beautiful bunches on opening day of one local Chicago farmers’ market.

You’ve just come home from a long, hard day. Exhausted. Bedraggled. Famished. Popping a pizza in the oven is one rather unhealthy way to go but this pasta dish, with its minimal effort and huge flavor payback, is most decidedly another. In the amount of time it takes to boil water, you can have a perfect bowl of nutty, chewy pasta topped with a bright green, vibrant sauce.

We love rich, meaty ragù — especially in the depths of winter. It’s such a treat poured over fresh pasta, or over fragrant rice. This particular recipe for rich lamb ragù is not hard to make, but you still get the benefits of long, slow cooking. The active part is over quickly, and then then the ragù sits and simmers all afternoon in the oven or all day in the slow cooker.

Want to add a little color to your plate?! Lovely ribbons of green, red, and yellow pasta really bring a dish to life. They’re also as easy to make as they are to eat! Here’s how:To color pasta, all you need to do is mix a few cups of vegetable puree into the eggs before you begin mixing the dough. This ensures that the color gets distributed evenly throughout the pasta.

During the boiling days of summer, conversations among my Korean friends inevitably turn toward cravings for mul naengmyun, a dish of buckwheat noodles and cold, tangy broth topped with crisp cucumber, pear, and even a few ice cubes for extra chill factor.Although it originated as a North Korean wintertime dish, icy mul naengmyun has become a favorite hot weather meal. Unfortunately for vegetarians like myself, the broth is traditionally made with beef.

You know that our most basic go-to meal is a riff on pasta with meat and greens. It’s such an easy one-dish meal, and so satisfying. Here’s our latest exploration of the theme: a hearty, spicy, and bold pasta that is wonderful after a long day of work in the garden. This is just like our other pasta templates; it’s adaptable to whatever you have around. But the main thing is to really brown the sausage and also to cook the kale well.

Spring is progressing, and the season for early spring foraged treats like morels and ramps will be over soon. So eat them while you can still find them! This pasta takes these two spring delicacies and puts them together in one simple, quick pasta.And if these two good things are out of season already, or hard to find, then try dried mushrooms and leeks or scallions instead. In fact, I had to use dried morels myself.

Yesterday we showed you a basic recipe for cooking and shredding a pork shoulder. It’s a great recipe on its own; there are plenty of soft carrots, tomatoes, and caramelized onions to make it a stand-alone meal. But we like to set aside some leftover meat, free from its braising sauce, and save it for other meals throughout the week. This is a good one that’s super easy and has a really unexpected flavor.The idea of a mustard cream sauce came from a recipe in Food & Wine.

We ate this pasta twice last weekend—at both dinner parties. It’s not healthy. It’s soaked in butter. Delicious, toasted, slightly sweet brown butter with little bits of sage fried up in that buttery bath. Save it for the holidays, when you’re splurging on calories. Or, hey, eat it twice in one weekend like we did…We weren’t really adept at browning butter and took a completely uneducated stab at it. Guess what?

Looking for one more dish for Thanksgiving, or maybe a first course appetite-teaser? Maybe you should try this dish of pumpkin ravioli from chef Salvatore Corea of New York City’s Alloro. This is a very fun dish; we love pumpkin ravioli, and the sauces that accompany the pasta here are deceptively easy.Alloro is an Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side – thank you to chef Salvatore Corea for this delicious dish! We’ll be trying it out soon.

This is definitely one of those dishes that evolved from being home alone on a weeknight and having nothing in the fridge. Success! Who knew a handful of leftover soba noodles, the last egg in the carton, and a few condiments could make such a delicious and satisfying meal?!The best part about this meal is the fried egg, in our humble opinion. The runny yolk mixes into the sesame-coated soba noodles like a creamy sauce, adding richness and substance to the dish.

For the sauce-hungry crowd, here is a basic tomato sauce, with some lemony and spicy elements for adding an optional zing. It’s easy, quick, and isn’t a boring old sauce. Basic sauces were one of the requested items from Cure-takers. This week’s assignment was to add a new skill to your cooking arsenal.

But sometimes when I just want some dinner after a long day, I do need to be reminded of the basics. For this you need only a handful of ingredients: a big tomato, half an onion or a few shallots, garlic, olive oil, some fresh basil, sage, or rosemary. Some red wine really helps, but don’t knock yourself out. Swirl over some tortellini from Trader Joe’s, pour the rest of the wine into a glass and you have yourself a very nice dish of pasta – all in about 10 minutes flat.

Here’s a recipe from a reader, SarahW, for a simple pasta dish using Swiss Chard (it’s been a hot topic of discussion on the Open Threads for a while) and Feta cheese. With greens such as spinach about to come into season on the East Coast, this would make a great spring dish. Pasta With Greens and Feta 6 Tbsp. olive oil (or less) 4 cups chopped onion 8 cups packed chopped bitter greens (e.g.