There's a dish for every mood, but sometimes an easy pasta recipe is exactly what you need. Sure, every now and then we love spending hours lingering over a perfect slow-cooked red sauce or hearty lasagna Napoletana, but there are also days when you need to get dinner on the table fast. For a delicious pasta dinner that's doable on a weeknight, check out 20 of our favorite quick and easy pasta recipes below. Whether you only have the most basic pantry staples on hand (olive oil, garlic, maybe a can of tomatoes), or you happen to have a tin of sardines, breadcrumbs, or a butternut squash, we have something that is just your speed.
Pasta c'Anciuova e Muddica Atturrata (Sicilian Pasta With Anchovies and Toasted Breadcrumbs)
This is an incredibly simple dish to make, with a huge savory-salty-sweet flavor payoff. It starts with onion and garlic gently cooked in olive oil until they just begin to soften. Anchovy fillets are added to the pan and allowed to dissolve before a large spoonful of Sicilian tomato estratto is folded into the mix.
Creamy Garlic Pasta
All you need for this simple pantry pasta is spaghetti, a head of garlic, some (good) extra-virgin olive oil, salt, a smidge of honey, a small amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano, and a lime (or lemon).
Pasta Con le Sarde (Sicilian Pasta With Sardines)
This recipe features a fragrant sauce made from onions, fennel, raisins, pine nuts, anchovies, sardines, and saffron, topped with toasted and seasoned bread crumbs.
Pasta ai Funghi (Creamy Pasta With Mushrooms)
Shallots, garlic, white wine, and parmesan bring out the earthy flavors of mushrooms in this comforting all-weather pasta.
Cacio e Pepe (Spaghetti With Black Pepper and Pecorino Romano)
A few technique tips will have you creating the easiest, creamiest, most delicious cacio e pepe at a moment's notice.
Pasta Alla Zozzona (Rigatoni With Sausage, Guanciale, and Egg Yolks)
Rigatoni alla zozzona is the decadent pasta mash-up of Roman amatriciana and carbonara, with a sausage twist.
Pasta With Butternut Squash and Sage Brown Butter
The hardest part about this dish is dicing the butternut squash. Otherwise, nutty browned butter, sage, and cheese do all of the heavy lifting.
Pasta chi Vruoccoli Arriminati (Sicilian Pasta With Cauliflower and Toasted Breadcrumbs)
In this recipe, cauliflower is cooked down into a savory-sweet sauce with Sicilian staples: anchovies, pine nuts, raisins, saffron, and toasted breadcrumbs.
Pasta Ai Quattro Formaggi (Creamy Four-Cheese Pasta)
Choose your four cheeses wisely for this bold, well-rounded, deeply flavorful, multi-layered, and complex cheesy pasta.
Pasta con la Bottarga (Pasta With Bottarga)
This aglio e olio variation puts the spotlight on Sardinia's famed salted mullet roe bottarga.
Pasta Cacio e Uova (Neapolitan Pasta With Eggs and Cheese)
Pasta cacio e uova, or cas' e ova in Neapolitan dialect, is a simple Campanian dish that can be most easily summarized as "meatless carbonara." Like carbonara, cas' e ova features a silky, temperature-sensitive sauce made with eggs and a mixture of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano that coats al dente dried pasta.
Japanese Mentaiko Spaghetti (Pasta With Spicy Cod Roe and Butter Sauce)
This dish serves as a simple dinner or late night snack made of delicious, buttery noodles tossed with spicy cured roe and nori strips.
Bucatini all'Amatriciana
In this recipe, quick pasta is smothered in a spicy tomato sauce with rich cured pork and tangy Pecorino Romano.
Shrimp Fra Diavolo (Shrimp and Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce)
A simple technique and a pantry ingredient imbues this spicy Italian-American classic with rich shellfish flavor.
Spaghetti Puttanesca (Spaghetti With Capers, Olives, and Anchovies)
This modern, classic Southern Italian pasta dish, flavored with garlic, anchovies, capers, olives, and tomatoes, is one of my favorite eat-it-by-myself meals—it's made 100% from pantry staples and it packs a powerful flavor punch.
Roman-Style Fettuccine With Alfredo Sauce
This recipe shows you how to make real-deal Roman fettuccine Alfredo with nothing more than butter and cheese.
Penne With Melted-Vegetable Sauce
Made with vegetables that have been cooked until meltingly soft, this penne pasta dish is one of those great examples of what makes classic rustic Italian cooking so special: It makes the most of humble and unassuming ingredients, turning them into something downright delicious.
Penne With Hot-as-You-Dare Arrabbiata Sauce
This simple pasta dish is made with a sauce that's spicy enough to earn its "angry" moniker.
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (Pasta in Garlic and Oil Sauce)
From arrabbiata to marinara, alle vongole to puttanesca, each sauce begins by gently cooking garlic in oil. And that's why aglio e olio is the simplest, and most delicious of basic pasta dishes.
Crispy Baked Pasta With Mushrooms, Sausage, and Parmesan Cream Sauce
In this recipe, crumbled Italian sausage, mushrooms, shallots, garlic, a little bit of soy sauce, and a simple creamy sauce are combined with pasta and topped with crisp bread crumbs. All this makes a one skillet meal fit for a weeknight.
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