recipes

These 81 Easy Pasta Recipes Are Your Weeknight-Dinner Saviors

They're all practical and delicious.
Image may contain Food and Plant
Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Susie Theodorou, Prop Styling by Sophie Strangio

Sure, these easy pasta recipes are fairly simple to make: you’ll find most of the ingredients in your pantry, pasta is, by nature, only a quick boil away, and let’s be honest, you probably have pre-grated parm in the fridge right now. (Oh, you have a wedge do you? That’s grate!) But they’re all more than just fast and convenient: They’re all big on flavor, too. So yeah, you’re making no-cook puttanesca and that sizzling one-pot sausage number because they’re easy pasta recipes—but also because they’re so damn tasty!

  • Image may contain Food Pasta Dish and Meal
    Photo by Alex Lau, food styling by Susie Theodorou, prop styling by Elizabeth Jaime
    1/81

    Tagliatelle With Prosciutto and Peas

    It’s okay to use frozen peas! We’ll never tell. We love ‘em.

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  • Photo by Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriott
    2/81

    Fettuccine Alfredo

    Classic, silky Alfredo sauce comes from the emulsion of grated Parmesan, cold butter, and starchy pasta water. Keep the cream out of it.

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Yekaterina Boytsova
    3/81

    Red Pesto Pasta

    This red pesto tastes like a mash-up of your favorite spicy arrabbiata sauce and the anchovy-garlic dip bagna cauda. All of which is to say, it’s delicious.

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Kate Buckens
    4/81

    Pasta al Limone (Lemon Pasta)

    This creamy lemon pasta recipe is luscious and amply cheesy,but still bright and fresh. Best part: You can make it for dinner in just 15 minutes.

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  • Photo by Marcus Nilsson, Food Styling by Frances Boswell, Prop Styling by Amy Wilson
    5/81

    Creamy Mushroom Pasta

    Mushrooms just need a quick sear in a hot pan before being tossed with pasta and cream in this easy weeknight dinner.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, food styling by Susie Theodorou, prop styling by Aneta Florczyk
    6/81

    Spaghetti With No-Cook Puttanesca

    A bright, summertime pasta sauce packed with in-season tomatoes and briny olives.

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Pearl Jones
    9/81

    Shrimp Scampi Pasta

    Buttery, garlicky, irresistible shrimp scampi—but make it pasta.

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Styling by Molly Baz
    10/81

    Simple Pasta Carbonara

    Humble ingredients—eggs, pasta, cheese, and pork—combine to create glossy, glorious spaghetti carbonara that’s just as good at dinner as at 2 a.m.

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  • Photo by Heidi's Bridge
    11/81

    Pasta Alla Vodka

    It's creamy. It's cheesy. It's tangy. And it's about to be your new favorite pantry pasta.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, food styling by Susie Theodorou, prop styling by Elizabeth Jaime
    12/81

    Red Wine Spaghetti

    It’s a showstopper. Two bottles of red wine get cooked down to a glossy butter sauce that stains and flavors the spaghetti.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, food styling by Susie Theodorou, prop styling by Elizabeth Jaime
    15/81

    Bucatini Alla Griccia With Fava Beans

    Think of this as carbonara minus the eggs but still with massive amounts of flavor from guanciale, black pepper, and Pecorino.

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Anna Billingskog
    16/81

    Burst Cherry Tomato Pasta

    A simple sauce of juicy, bursty cherry tomatoes (aka nature’s Gushers) that comes together in around 15 minutes.

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  • Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Jennifer Ophir
    19/81

    Mushroom Carbonara

    Mushrooms take the place of the traditional cured pork in this super-satisfying vegetarian carbonara recipe.

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Olivia Mack McCool
    20/81

    Ratatouille Pasta

    If we were to round up an all-star team of summer's greatest produce, it'd look a little something like ratatouille: Eggplant and zucchini. Peppers and tomatoes. The gang's all here!

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Kat Boytsova
    23/81

    Jammy Pepper Pasta Salad

    This spicy, sweet, and punchy pasta salad is perfect for a hot summer picnic when you need your dishes perfect at room (ahem, air) temperature.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Susie Theodorou, Prop Styling by Sophie Strangio
    24/81

    Kale Pesto With Whole Wheat Pasta

    This kale pesto inspired us to keep spreading the word that there is still no better or more delicious way to eat your greens.

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  • Alex Lau
    25/81

    Spaghetti Aglio e Olio With Lots of Kale

    You will think this pasta recipe calls for an absurd amount of kale, but it will shrink a ton when cooked.

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Kat Boytsova
    26/81

    Summer Bolognese

    Think of this weeknight-friendly pasta recipe as a lighter take on the classic Italian ragù that features cherry tomatoes, a red chile for some heat, and tons of fresh basil.

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, food styling by Anna Billingskog
    35/81

    Pasta With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

    When tomato season rolls around, this no-cook tomato pasta is our ace in the hole.

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  • Marcus Nilsson
    36/81

    Pasta alla Gricia

    Both guanciale and Pecorino are quite salty; Leonardo Vignoli, the chef at Da Cesare al Casaletto, recommends undersalting the pasta water to give you more control.

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  • Nicole Franzen
    37/81

    Bucatini with Walnut-Parsley Pesto

    That parsley in your fridge is lonely! Let it hang with chiles and walnuts for your next weeknight pasta.

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  • Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott
    38/81

    Fridge-Dive Pesto Pasta

    This pesto pasta recipe is the solution for any leftover hardy green, lettuce, or herb you don’t know what to do with. Cleaning out your fridge has never been so rewarding!

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  • Peden + Munk
    39/81

    Linguine With Anchovies and Tuna

    Olive oil–packed tuna can get pricey; we also recommend using deboned canned sardines for this pasta recipe.

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  • Photo by Heidi's Bridge, styling by Anna Billingskog
    40/81

    Stovetop Mac and Cheese

    Muenster and Fontina are pretty soft cheeses and can be difficult to grate, so just stick both in the freezer 10 minutes to let them firm up before starting.

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  • Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Sean Dooley
    49/81

    Cacio e Pepe

    Literally "cheese and pepper", this minimalist pasta is like a stripped-down mac and cheese.

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  • Marcus Nilsson
    50/81

    Ligurian Pesto with Spaghetti

    This recipe makes more pesto than you'll need. Serve the extra with vegetables or fish, or spread it on sandwiches.

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  • Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott
    51/81

    Rock Shrimp Pasta With Spicy Tomato Sauce

    A flavorful tomato sauce that’s a cinch to make and rock shrimp that come already peeled mean a weeknight dinner recipe has never been so easy—or delicious.

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  • Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Kat Boystova
    52/81

    BA's Best Linguine and Clams

    Clams vary in brininess and the amount of liquid they’ll release during cooking, so you’ll need to adjust the salt and add pasta water accordingly. To prevent the sauce from getting too salty, we recommend a measured amount of salt for the pasta water. If possible, look for an artisanal dried pasta for this recipe—the rougher surface texture will catch the slippery sauce better.

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  • Alex Lau
    63/81

    Salt-As-You-Go Pasta

    The combination of salty water and salty Parmesan puts this pasta at risk of becoming oversalted. If that happens, throw in a knob of unsalted butter at the end to mellow it and add a smooth finish.

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  • Nicole Franzen
    64/81

    Pasta with Anchovy Butter and Broccoli Rabe

    Why is it that in the dead of winter, everything seems to need a little help? Anchovy butter delivers bold flavor to this back-pocket pasta.

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, food styling by Kat Boytsova
    73/81

    All-American Cheeseburger Pasta

    Whether you know it as American Chop Suey, Chili Mac, or American Goulash, this deeply flavorful, super-comforting pasta dish is greater than the sum of its humble parts.

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  • Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott
    74/81

    Pasta with Roasted Romanesco and Capers

    Broccoli would be just as good in this pasta with recipe, as would diced winter squash such as butternut or acorn.

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