I don’t know anybody who doesn’t love pasta, but I also don’t know anybody who wants to take out three to four different pots and pans on a Monday night after work. One-pot pasta is great because you’re removing the extra step of boiling and transferring your pasta to another dish.
You’re combining the pasta with the cooking liquid itself and your other components and ingredients, and the end result is almost like magic. It’s a cohesive, full meal that has all the indulgence of pasta, and you won’t have 800 things to clean up when you’re done.
1) Aglio E Olio
Aglio e olio is a simple pasta dish. It’s basically pasta, olive oil, garlic, and any add-ins you want, which is why it’s so wonderful. With all of these one-pot dishes, the ratio you want to follow is about eight ounces of liquid for every four ounces of pasta, and you can go from there depending on how many people you’re cooking for. So anytime a recipe says to add water, just make sure you’re not using too much, to the point where it’s just a pot of soup, or too little, where you end up with a sticky, clumpy pasta dish.
This one is boil the pasta, then slice garlic and add olive oil. Chili flakes are great here, and grated cheese would go a long way. I would not use lemon zest in this. After cooking it in the water, I think adding lemon juice would make it too acidic and probably take over the whole dish. You have to work quick with aglio e olio because you’re working with a very simple sauce, you don’t have a lot of leeway.
Make sure that when you’re boiling the pasta, you’re really letting it cook down before you start adding in your garlic, olive oil, chili flakes, and Parmesan. You really want to see just a puddle of water at the bottom of the pan, and it should be a little bit thick from the starch of the pasta before you start creating the sauce.
So this is a very simple dish, but the key here is the technique. You just have to be careful how long you let that cooking process go, and you don’t want your pasta to start to become gummy. Keeping an eye on the liquid before you put your add-ins in is key. I really like to finish it off with toasted breadcrumbs if I have them, it really elevates it along with the Parmesan. It’s fantastic.
2) Spaghetti with Tomato and Basil
This is dry spaghetti cooked right in crushed tomatoes, water, garlic, and sugar. If you have fresh basil, fantastic. If you don’t, I would add in some dried Italian seasoning. It’s very inexpensive, just keep it in your pantry, and you can use it in a lot of things, but it would really do well here.
If it was me, I would do something like rigatoni in this dish. I think the tomatoes can hold up to a heartier pasta shape, and some of that sauce will get into the pasta tubes and really create a nice mouthfeel. You can throw some cheese in at the end, but I would not use fresh mozzarella, especially considering this is a one pot pasta dish that already has a lot of liquid. I would use a low moisture mozzarella so your dish doesn’t become watery and taste diluted.
I also really like to add a splash of heavy cream to that one. I’ve done that many times and it gives the sauce some really good body and makes it more of a pink sauce, which is very, very delicious. This will be done start to finish in about 30 minutes, which is one of the reasons it’s so great.
3) Creamy Garlic Pasta
This one is similar, pasta boiled in broth with Parmesan cheese and cream. I would use angel hair or something thin here. I think this sauce would do well with a delicate pasta shape. Please make sure you continue to respect the ratio of liquid, that’s key to a successful dish.
You’re going to use broth, which adds a lot of good flavor, but I would recommend using an unsalted broth. Broth is very salty, and you’re also adding cheese, which is salty, so using unsalted broth gives you the ability to control the amount of salt in the dish, so you don’t end up with a salt lick of a pasta when you’re done.
Boil that pasta down in the broth, let it cook down a little bit. I would not use milk. I’d recommend using at minimum half and half. Milk is going to have too much water, it’s not going to give your dish the body it needs. The good news is there’s a lot of starch from that pasta, so when it combines with the cream and the Parmigiano Reggiano it gives this great flavor, especially considering there are so few ingredients.
This would also do well with some garlic. If you don’t have garlic, I mean, this is kind of considered criminal in Italian culture, but I would use garlic powder, especially on a weeknight if I didn’t want to break out the cutting board and start chopping things. This is so comforting and delicious. If you have lemon at the end, you could zest a little bit, just make sure you don’t get the white bitter pith, you just want the yellow lemon skin. Finely grate that and stir maybe a teaspoon in to bring some freshness into the dish, because this one’s a little bit rich.
4) Lemon Ricotta Pasta
This is just pasta with ricotta and lemon. I would use a shortcut pasta here, something like ditalini, maybe a radiatore. The ricotta and lemon is very simple, and given that the instructions are to use a small amount of salted water to boil the pasta, I think a long cut pasta could be tricky. It could start to stick together and get gluey.
So my first recommendation would be to do a shortcut pasta, use a small amount of water, and then fold in some whole milk ricotta cheese. This sauce really needs the body of whole milk ricotta, plus lemon zest, cracked black pepper, and red pepper flakes. You can add in some frozen peas.
I think fresh arugula would add a nice bite, but make sure you throw it in at the very last second because you want it barely wilted. I do a very light drizzle of olive oil. This could be a very fresh, springy dish, if you want pasta but you don’t want something super heavy.
5) Pesto Pasta
I love pesto pasta. It’s super simple, but it feels very elevated, like it took you a long time to make. As far as what pesto to get, pick something from the refrigerated section, that’s my main thing. I do not like the jarred pesto off the pantry shelves, I think it tastes stale and dull, like it’s been sitting. A packaged fresh pesto from the refrigerator will last you a while, so you can keep it on hand.
You’re essentially just cooking your pasta, adding some veggies, and adding your pesto. The recipe says green beans, but I would not use green beans for this, they’re not the play here. Zucchini would be wonderful. Do a small dice on the zucchini, and this is one time where it’s worth the extra effort to saute the veggies and set them on a plate off to the side before you cook your pasta. Because if you add your veggies into the same pot, they’re just going to be wet, and you’ll end up with wet boiled veggies and pasta, which sounds terrible.
So chop up your zucchini and some garlic, saute that in a little bit of olive oil until your zucchini gets some good color, and set it to the side. Add in your pasta and your broth or water, cook that down, add the zucchini back in, and make sure the liquid is almost gone on this one. You really don’t want it swimming in water, because the pesto can’t hold up to all that water. Remove it from the heat, add your zucchini, add your pesto, and freshly grated Romano cheese. Crushed red pepper is great here too.
I would forgo the squeeze of lemon, I don’t think it needs it. Pesto is very punchy, especially if it’s not coming from a shelf stable jar. So that’s a very simple dish, you really don’t need much. This is one of my favorite things to make if I really want my food to taste like it came from a restaurant, but I don’t want to go to a restaurant or pay for it. Super simple.
6) Pasta Primavera
This is basically pasta and vegetables, to make it simple. Pasta primavera is my clean out the refrigerator dish, so whatever you have vegetable wise that’s on the edge, or you just need to use up, peppers, onions, zucchini, carrots, broccoli florets, peas, greens, spinach, arugula. You really can’t mess this up.
Again, this is a situation where I would give the veggies a quick saute in some olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder before you cook the pasta. Anytime you throw vegetables into a pasta dish that’s cooking, it’s just not going to give them a good texture, there’s no way. So give them a saute, move them out of the pan, then add in your pasta and cooking liquid, whether that’s broth or water, again using unsalted broth.
I like to do a fettuccine for this dish. I just think the textural variation between the long pasta and the vegetables is really nice. After your pasta is done cooking, add a little bit of olive oil and some cheese, Parmesan or Romano, this doesn’t need much. If you have any baby cherry tomatoes that you’re adding into the cooking veggies, it gives it its own saucy quality, which is really nice, almost like a shortcut to making your own sauce. It comes together very nicely, and I’m always somebody to advocate for some Parmesan at the end.
7) Creamy Mushroom Pasta
This is essentially cooked down mushrooms with a splash of cream, and it’s so good. Mushrooms are my favorite for giving dishes an umami quality, the essence of having a protein in the dish when you don’t have any steak or chicken on hand. They really have a meaty quality, which is why it’s great for vegetarians.
When you’re prepping your mushrooms, you don’t want to wash them in the sink. Mushrooms absorb everything, so if you wash them in the sink with water, they’re going to absorb that water, and then when you go to cook them they’ll just be like wet sponges. They won’t caramelize, and you need that caramelization to make the mushroom palatable. So wipe down your mushrooms with a dry paper towel, removing any dirt and grime, and slice them.
Get some olive oil going in your pan and cook those mushrooms down. I’d say give them two more minutes than you think they need. Make sure you add some salt to the mushrooms, it will draw out some of the liquid, and black pepper, this dish really needs black pepper. Then add your pasta. I like farfalle bow tie pasta in this dish, I just think it’s really fun and I love the texture. Add in your broth or water and cook it down till your noodles are al dente.
Then if you want, add a splash of cream. I don’t think mascarpone would do well here because it may break up in the water and not dissolve well. Me personally, I would do a splash of cream and a couple ounces of full fat cream cheese, which will incorporate a little better. And if you’re feeling a little crazy, you could put a little bit of Asiago cheese just to give it a nutty flavor and break it up from the usual taste of Parmesan and pasta.
8) Spinach Artichoke Pasta
This is basically a spinach artichoke dip sauce on some pasta. Use a hearty pasta shape, I would not put this on a delicate pasta, it’s not going to hold up well. Cook your pasta till your cooking liquid is essentially dissolved and you have a nice starchy base.
This is another place I would do some cream. I would do all three, a splash of cream, grated Parmesan, and a little bit of cream cheese. Those three come together with the starchy water and really give you a silky smooth sauce. Then chopped spinach.
You can use frozen spinach, but after it thaws you really need to dry it well. Put it in a piece of cheesecloth or a paper towel and wring it out after it’s defrosted to let that liquid come out, otherwise you’ll end up with a lot of spinach water in your final dish. If you’re using fresh spinach, don’t throw it in until the last 30 seconds or else it’s going to get kind of mushy and gross.
For the canned artichoke hearts, give them a rough chop. A whole artichoke heart is just way too much in a pasta dish, so give it a rough chop, not too fine. This is a great option, it looks absolutely delicious.
9) Broccoli Cheddar Pasta
This is basically pasta with a broccoli cheddar soup-esque sauce. I love broccoli cheddar soup. If it were me, I would boil my pasta in the broth using the proper ratio. When it’s almost done cooking, add the broccoli, it needs about five minutes, not just a minute. Finely chop your broccoli and put it in for the last five minutes.
When your liquid has really cooked down with the starch, and your broccoli is a nice bright green color and tender, lower the heat and add some cream. You need half and half or cream in this dish for the base of the sauce, because if you just add the cheese to the brothy, starchy water, it’s going to lack richness and almost be grainy. You need the cream for the fat factor.
Add in your cream, then your shredded cheese. Pre-shredded cheese has a coating on it to keep it from clumping, but the downside is that when you add it to a sauce it makes the sauce grainy.
So if you have two minutes to shred your cheese yourself, that’s better, it gives you a silkier, smoother final product. You can really use whatever cheese you have in your refrigerator. A teaspoon of Dijon mustard at the end adds a good flavor, and if you don’t have that, a quarter teaspoon of mustard powder gives you the same effect.
10) Cacio E Pepe
Most of us know this dish, it’s basically pasta with a very simple olive oil sauce and lots of black pepper. It’s very good and very simple. I prefer it with some protein, and I don’t think this is traditional, but if you have some grilled chicken or shrimp, I think it’s better that way. The black pepper needs something to offset it.
The key to this dish is that you don’t need many ingredients. Using spaghetti is great here. Don’t go crazy with the heat. Boil your pasta until it’s almost done, and when it’s almost done, give the temperature time to come down so the cheese and everything don’t curdle or separate when you add them in. You don’t want to shock the dish, so turn the heat down and give it five minutes to come down. If you go right from high heat to medium low heat and just start tossing everything in, it’s still going to be a problem, so give it time.
Then add your cheese a little bit at a time, whether that’s Romano, Pecorino, or Parmigiano-Reggiano, stirring between each addition. Add in black pepper to your heart’s content, that’s really the shining flavor of this dish. Once you have a silky, glossy pasta dish, you’re done. It’s truly that simple.
11) Sausage Marinara Pasta
This is Italian sausage and crushed tomatoes cooked in the sauce. It’s pretty straightforward and I love doing this. I know we said weeknight pastas, but this is a great Sunday sauce too, because it packs a lot of flavor and doesn’t require a lot of hands-on attention.
Take your favorite Italian sausage. If you have ground sausage, great. Sometimes my grocery store doesn’t have ground sausage, so what I’ll do is buy the whole sausages and either cut them up or squeeze them out of the casing, because it’s just ground sausage. Cook that off. Red onion will give this a great punch, and fresh garlic, I would not go garlic powder here, fresh garlic is going to be a star.
Add your pasta. I really, really like a rigatoni in this dish, I think I said that earlier for the other tomato dish, but rigatoni. Respect the ratio with the water. For the crushed tomatoes, this needs a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste for richness with the sausage, it really needs it. Add a splash of red wine if you have it, not too much, just a splash, and let it cook down. Let the noodles soak everything up.
I’ve also done this with ground beef and with chopped up steak. You can even let the sauce cook down a little bit before you add in your pasta. There’s huge flavor here, huge payoff, and you don’t have to babysit a pot of water or a pot of sauce.
12) Beef Bolognese Pasta
This is pasta, ground beef, and tomato paste. Normally bolognese takes forever, you really have to be invested, but this is what I would call a cheater’s bolognese, which is just as delicious but fast, and you can have it during the week.
Make sure your ground beef has some fat content, lean ground beef is not going to give this dish what it needs. Cook your ground beef down in olive oil with fresh garlic. Add some tomato paste and let it cook for a few minutes to get rid of the tinny taste, tomato paste is usually stored in a metal tube or tin, and you have to cook that taste out.
Before you add your pasta, this dish really needs wine. If you have red wine, add a splash to the ground beef and tomato paste mixture and let the alcohol cook out. Add your tomatoes and broth, then your pasta, and let it cook down. When it’s done, do not add milk, milk is not going to work here. Add in cream, just a little bit, do not overtake the dish with it, we’re talking maybe four ounces max.
I don’t think anyone would know you didn’t make this on the stove all day. It’s very, very good. Bucatini pasta is so good in this, it has the bite and the heartiness it needs but still gives you the comfort of a spaghetti shape. So, so good.
13) Turkey Taco Pasta
This is basically taco meat cooked in a pasta. I love where we’re going with this. Ground turkey could work, but I think ground beef will give this a much better flavor. The key with these one pot dishes is that you’re really layering flavor, and if you’re shortcutting the quality or fat content of your ingredients, it’s going to reflect in the final dish, because you don’t have different cooking steps to mask shortcuts. It’s all going in the same pot. So ground turkey is fine, but I would definitely go ground beef.
Use your favorite taco seasoning. I like the Siete one, it doesn’t have a lot of the icky junk that some of the others do. Cook it down and add your pasta. I would definitely add your favorite salsa with the cooking liquid. Keep in mind the spiciness of your salsa will absorb into the flavor of the dish, so you don’t want to go crazy if you don’t love spicy. Salsa would be great, but if you don’t have it, that’s fine.
When it’s almost done, I would mix in a little bit of cream cheese or sour cream. I would have a little fun with this and top it with sour cream, grated cheese, and pico de gallo would be so good here. I love the idea of crushed tortilla chips. And when you cook the ground beef, I would even add some black beans into the mixture, I think that would be really good and add a bit more of a taco vibe. This is a great way to mix up taco night, I feel like my kids would like this a lot.
14) Cajun Chicken Pasta
This is chicken strips, pasta, and Cajun seasoning. How I would do this: use the Cajun seasoning to season the chicken, and really go heavy with it, add a little more than you think and make sure it’s really coated well. Get a few tablespoons of olive oil into a pan and cook those chicken strips down, breaking them up a little bit.
This keeps the Cajun seasoning mostly focused on the chicken, but you’ll still get it in the sauce. Cajun seasoning can be a lot, it’s good but it can be a lot, and you don’t want it to completely overtake the entire pasta dish. Again, one pot, we’ve got to be careful how we’re layering the flavors.
So cook the chicken, add in your pasta and your broth, let it cook down, add some cream, and taste the sauce before you add any more Cajun seasoning. It’s great, but you don’t want to go nuts with it. I would also recommend using bell peppers and onions in this, it would be really great, just cook them down a little bit when you cook the chicken. This is a great way to do a pink sauce with a different vibe to change it up.
15) Chicken Alfredo Pasta
This is a riff on classic Alfredo. Fettuccine or linguine is perfect here. Cook it down in some broth. Again, this is one where you want to make sure there’s not too much water left when you start to build your sauce, or it’s just going to be Alfredo soup. When you have that starchy liquid and the pasta is al dente, you can test it, bite into it, it should be cooked but firm.
Add in some cream and Parmesan, and taste it for salt, it needs salt and black pepper. If you have cooked chicken, that’s great, and you could also do cooked shrimp. If you have some fresh greens, this is something where you can throw in what you like. Broccoli is really good here, just add it during the last couple minutes of cooking, just like you did with that broccoli cheddar pasta.
This is so comforting, a great winter meal to cook. This is something my husband and I would make and then park on the couch and watch a movie while we eat it, because it’s just so cozy and super simple.
16) Tuscan Chicken Pasta
This is a tomato, spinach, chicken pasta dish. I really love a chicken breast in a Tuscan chicken pasta. I would thinly slice it and make sure you season it well, because whatever the flavor of the chicken is, is going to be the flavor of the dish. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and a little bit of smoked paprika could be really fun to round out the dish. Cook your chicken down.
I would love this dish with some chopped green olives. I know that sounds crazy, but I think they’d give it a good bite. And as opposed to using a tomato sauce, I would do fresh baby tomatoes, the sweeter the better. Add those in with the olives, the chicken, and the olive oil, and cook it down a little bit. Let those tomatoes blister, and once they start to pop and break up, add in your broth and your spices, whatever you like, Italian seasoning, fresh basil.
When it’s almost done, add in your fresh spinach and top it with some grated cheese. This is salty and savory, feels a little bit different. This is a great one.
17) Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta
This is a pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and garlic. I love sun-dried tomatoes, but when they’re left whole in a final dish, once they rehydrate they can be really overwhelming, so give them a rough chop. Saute them with fresh garlic. I would slice the garlic, not mince it, in this situation, slicing it makes it a little milder when the dish comes together.
So garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and red pepper flakes or a little bit of chili oil, then add your pasta and broth and let it cook down. The sun-dried tomatoes add great richness. I do not personally like to add the oil from the jar because I think it’s a lot, sun-dried tomatoes are very pungent. But on its own with that garlic, the chili flakes, and the sun-dried tomatoes, you really can’t go wrong.
18) Pasta Puttanesca
This is a very simple sauce. The main flavors come from the tomatoes, olives, and capers. When it comes to the olives, my general rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t use it on a charcuterie board, don’t put it in your pasta. So a can of black olives, if that’s your vibe, go for it, but I would not do that with so few ingredients. Every ingredient counts.
Get your spaghetti going with some canned tomatoes, which are fine here, plus water or broth. If you don’t have broth, you can use water with chicken bouillon, just be careful with the salt. Then your good olives and capers. I easily find capers in the Italian section of my grocery store, and sometimes they can be with the pickled vegetables. Fresh garlic, again I would thinly slice it here to give the flavor space to come out, and a pinch of chili flakes.
Seriously, if you love savory, salty, and tangy, this is hitting all those notes. Just test the salt level, because you have a lot of briny ingredients going on. And this really needs the chili flakes, because it needs a little bit of a punch to offset that salty flavor.
19) Pasta with Tuna
This is great if you’re low on protein options. Most of us have at least a can or two of tuna in the pantry. If you love seafood, you will love this, but you don’t have to get a cutting board out, you don’t have to chop, and you don’t have to cook fish to the proper temperature, you can just avoid all that.
I personally would cook your pasta in your broth or water, this would be great with angel hair, I love angel hair with seafood. When it’s almost done, add in your can of tuna. Bonus points if your tuna is in olive oil, because that makes it even better, but any tuna is fine. Add the tuna, those capers again, and a little bit of lemon juice. Don’t go crazy with the lemon juice, it doesn’t need a whole bunch of acid, and fresh lemon juice is best here.
Then a drizzle of olive oil and something a little bit spicy, chili flakes will take this a very long way. If you have lemon zest, you could top it with a little bit. And if you want to do greens, I would do arugula, but I would not add it while it’s on the heat.
When it’s off the heat and has had about five minutes to cool, add in the arugula at the end to maintain the freshness, I don’t want my arugula to wilt. The fresh seafood and the richness really do well with the fresh greens, and it’ll feel like you’re eating something near the water by the beach, I promise.
20) Anchovy Garlic Pasta
This is pasta with a little bit of anchovies, oil, and garlic, again super simple. People are terrified of anchovies, they’ve gotten a bad rap, but if you get good anchovies and cook them properly, they give your dish the most savory, umami, salty quality, and you would not know what you were eating unless somebody told you.
Cook your pasta how you want, in broth or water. I would give the anchovies a rough chop. Some people like them whole, but if you’re just dipping your toes into the water with anchovies, I would give them a rough chop, so you don’t have big pieces of anchovy in your dish and the sauce melds together more, less of a pieces-of-fish vibe. Chopped anchovies, olive oil, garlic, and a little bit of salt, anchovies can be very salty, plus a little black pepper.
Toss your cooked pasta with that and give it a minute to melt. Don’t pull it off the heat right away, give it a minute for the anchovies to dissolve into the pasta water, oil, and garlic and become cohesive.
I promise you this is not even going to taste like quote unquote fish as you imagine it, it’s just going to taste very hearty, delicious, and savory. I really like a dish like this. I like to eat some fresh garlic toast on the side, just the crusty bread with the savory pasta and the saltiness of the anchovy, it’s so good, very delicious.
21) Shrimp Pasta
I love shrimp. I like to keep shrimp in my freezer for nights when I’m trying to cook something on the fly. I do prefer the flavor of fresh shrimp, but that’s not always an option. If you have fresh shrimp, great, they cook in like 90 seconds. If you only have frozen shrimp, like I so often do, just make sure you thaw them.
When you’re done thawing them, pat them very dry. They can hold a lot of water, and I’ve made the mistake before of cooking frozen shrimp, draining them, and not getting some of that water out, and a lot of that water seeps into the dish. It’s not the most pleasant thing. So make sure those shrimp are as dry as you can get them, and then keep an eye on them, do not walk away from your shrimp because they will turn to rubber bands.
The way I do this is I cook my shrimp first. Get some olive oil going with a little bit of garlic and cook that shrimp first, watching it closely, then take it out of the pan. Add in your pasta, because the pasta will absorb all of that goodness, the oil, the garlic, and the flavor of the shrimp, then add in your broth or water and start to cook it down.
When it’s almost done, add a few tablespoons of butter, a squeeze of lemon, taste for seasoning, and at the very last minute throw your shrimp back in. Do not add your shrimp when you add the butter, because it’s going to overcook. Those shrimp don’t go back in until you’re ready to cut the heat and serve the dish. This tastes like a very, very good version of shrimp scampi. If you time it right, this tastes very fancy.
22) Salmon Pasta
This is pasta with cream, salmon, and dill. You need to cook your salmon first for this dish, the flavor of salmon put into almost-done pasta is not going to be super pleasant. Dice your salmon up, because you do want it to break up a little bit, you don’t want big pieces of salmon.
Season it, cook it in that olive oil, then remove it from the pan and cook your noodles. Add in your cream or creme fraiche and your fresh herbs, you could do dill or parsley, you have some options here. Then put your salmon back in, and try not to stir too aggressively or you’ll break up the salmon too much. That’s how you keep the salmon from being overcooked or mushy.
23) Clam Pasta
I love this because I grew up by the water, so this is something we ate a lot. Get some jarred clams. I prefer the ones in a glass jar so they don’t taste tinny. Give them a rough chop, I don’t like big clam pieces. Add some of that clam juice to your pasta water, because it gives good flavor to the pasta.
This doesn’t need a whole lot. After your pasta is done, add in your clams, some red pepper flakes, and a squeeze of lemon, and it’s literally done. Put a little drizzle of olive oil on top, and some fresh parsley is my absolute favorite in this. It’s fresh, it’s easy, and it takes like 15 minutes.
24) White Bean Pasta
I love white beans because when they cook down, they’re very saucy. This is just pasta with beans and herbs. Cook your pasta down a little bit. I would not do rosemary, it would give this too much of an earthy quality, but garlic, basil, or oregano would be really great here. Do not leave out the garlic.
When the pasta has absorbed most of that water, put your beans in. Break them up a little bit before you add them into the dish, you want the texture of the whole beans but you also want some of them to break down into a sauce. This is a great way to give it a creamy quality without overtaking your sauce with cream or cream cheese.
I would toss this with herbs and top it with a little bit of Parmesan. And I would definitely throw some spinach in at the last minute for some freshness and veggies, because it is very one note, so you need something to break it up. This is a great inexpensive protein option with your pasta.
25) Lentil Pasta
This one forgoes meat for lentils. Interesting. If I were to do this, I would develop my sauce first, so garlic, a little bit of onion, and crushed tomatoes, then add in my quick cooking lentils with water and let it cook down into something hearty. It will take some time for the lentils to absorb the tomatoes, so keep an eye on it, because you may need to add a little more liquid depending on how much the lentils absorb.
This is a great opportunity to add in some diced veggies, diced bell pepper and diced carrots, and cook those down with the onions and tomatoes before you add in the lentils. This is very good and very comforting. It gives you the heartiness of meat with the benefits for vegetarians, very high in fiber and plant-based protein. A really great option.
26) Chickpea Pasta
This is pasta basically tossed with garlic chickpeas. I’m going to be honest, this one doesn’t mesh for me, and if it were me I would not have it on a list. But if I were to try to make it, I would boil my pasta, probably a shortcut pasta again, just because I think a long cut pasta with chickpeas wouldn’t meld texturally. I would cook it in broth, again unsalted broth.
I would add in my garlic, and give the chickpeas a little bit of a break-up, just a tiny bit. I like the texture of them, but having them completely whole would be a lot in this dish. So chickpeas, lemon zest, garlic, crushed red pepper, and some greens, whatever you have in the fridge, thrown in right at the end. I would definitely top this with some grilled chicken breast. Texturally it would be interesting, but there’s a lot of opportunity to pack in a lot of flavor.
27) Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
I do this a lot. I blend a jar of roasted red peppers with a little bit of cream and some garlic. Boil your pasta, and when it’s done, add in that beautiful silky roasted red pepper, garlic, and cream. Save some of the pasta water on the side to add in and loosen it up a little bit. This really does well with Parmesan cheese, and I also love fresh spinach in it.
28) Bacon Pea Pasta
This is a great take on a pasta carbonara, but less finicky, so you get all the same flavors with not as much work. Cook your bacon down, or if you have pancetta you can do pancetta. Remove your bacon from the pan because you don’t want it to get soggy. Add your pasta and saute it in the bacon fat for a second, it’s going to give it really good flavor. Then add in your broth and cook it down.
I would add your peas about four minutes before it’s done, then throw your bacon or pancetta back in. This needs cream to finish out the dish, and it also needs Romano cheese, just let it melt down. This dish basically cooks itself, and when you have a saucy texture coating that pasta, it’s done. I would top it with a little bit more cheese and fresh parsley. It’s a showstopper, honestly.
29) Ham And Swiss Pasta
This seems super kid-friendly. It’s basically like a carbonara, but you’re switching up the proteins and the cheese and leaving out the veggies that kids will not eat. And it’s super fast.
If you have pre-cooked ham, dice it up and cook your pasta. When it’s almost done and you have a little bit of that pasta water left, pull it off and stir in Swiss cheese. You really don’t even need cream, because Swiss is very rich, creamy, and fatty. Once that cheese is melted, add in your chopped ham. This really doesn’t need much at all. I would forego the nutmeg and do some cracked black pepper instead. This is salty, savory, delicious, and family-friendly, there’s no way you can go wrong.
30) Chicken Broccoli Pasta
This is chicken, pasta, and broccoli. I would use a ziti for this, we’re not trying to make chicken Alfredo. Brown some chicken, I would use boneless chicken breast, or boneless skinless chicken thigh if you want a little more fat and flavor. When the chicken is almost done, add your pasta and your broth. Broccoli and peas would be great in this, and greens or zucchini would be great too.
Make sure you’ve got some fresh garlic, chopped up. We’re not adding cream to this. I would do chopped garlic and some good olive oil at the end, and lemon if you like the freshness it adds. This is a great way to really get some veggies and protein into your pasta dish.
31) Sausage Kale Pasta
I love kale with sausage, the bitterness of the kale really plays off the fatty savoriness of the sausage. Chop your kale up really fine, you don’t want a lot of those tough spines in there. I would cook my sausage down in the olive oil first, then add your pasta in the broth.
You don’t want to add the kale until about three minutes before it’s done, because it will get soggy, break down, and be muddy. So when the sausage pasta is almost done, add your kale. This comes together really nicely, and the fat from the sausage gives the sauce a very silky quality. If you finish this off with some chopped pine nuts, Pecorino Romano, and toasted breadcrumbs, it will knock it out of the park.
32) Pasta Alla Vodka
People think pasta alla vodka is super intimidating, but it’s not, it’s basically just tomato pasta with a couple extra steps, and it’s very hard to mess up. Cook your pasta down with your broth or water and your tomato sauce. If you don’t have diced tomatoes, a jar of pasta sauce is fine here, whatever you have, I like something with some chunks of tomato in it.
Add your splash of vodka with that broth and tomato mixture and give it time to cook off, just a splash, don’t go crazy. It’s just going to give some good flavor, and the alcohol cooks off. When it’s almost done, add half a cup to a cup of cream, depending on how pink you like your sauce. This does really well with a substantial amount of freshly grated Parmesan. Let that come together and it’s literally done.
It’s very impressive. This is a good dish to make for guests. You can serve it with chicken, shrimp, chicken cutlets, whatever you have, or even just a side salad or Caesar salad. There’s a lot of things you can do with this, and it really doesn’t take long at all.
33) Mac And Cheese
Who doesn’t like mac and cheese? I make it for my kids all the time. The key here is your cheese, if you’re able to shred it yourself, it keeps your sauce from getting grainy. The pre-shredded cheese that comes in the bags has a coating on it to keep it from clumping, and that will make your sauce grainy.
With so few ingredients in a one pot dish, you want to make sure you’re using freshly grated cheese if you have it. This is also an opportunity to use up odds and ends of different kinds of cheese sitting around in the refrigerator.
For this one, you want to go a little less than the ratio, I would do just half milk, half water. Cook your elbow macaroni down until that liquid is almost gone and the macaroni is cooked through. Then add your cheese in multiple additions, a handful melted in, another handful melted in, and when it’s silky, smooth, and glossy, you know it’s done.
I like to add a tiny bit of mustard powder and salt, and taste it for seasoning. You really could add anything, you could add fresh broccoli or serve it on the side, but me personally, I would just leave it as is, because it has enough flavor and wow factor to stand on its own.
