Quick, Comforting, and Absolutely Easy: 20 Pastas to Keep on Repeat

Cacio e pepe on a tan ceramic plate alongside two small bowls, one holding shredded cheese and the other holding freshly ground pepper. There is a metal fork with pasta swirled around it on the plate. — Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

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.

March 2017

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Pasta c'Anciuova e Muddica Atturrata (Sicilian Pasta With Anchovies and Toasted Breadcrumbs)

Serious Eats / Sasha Marx

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.

Pasta c'Anciuova e Muddica Atturrata (Sicilian Pasta With Anchovies and Toasted Breadcrumbs)
Creamy Garlic Pasta

Amanda Suarez / Serious Eats

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).

Creamy Garlic Pasta
Pasta Con le Sarde (Sicilian Pasta With Sardines)

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

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 Con le Sarde (Sicilian Pasta With Sardines)
Pasta ai Funghi (Creamy Pasta With Mushrooms)

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Shallots, garlic, white wine, and parmesan bring out the earthy flavors of mushrooms in this comforting all-weather pasta.

Pasta ai Funghi (Creamy Pasta With Mushrooms)

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Cacio e Pepe (Spaghetti With Black Pepper and Pecorino Romano)

Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

A few technique tips will have you creating the easiest, creamiest, most delicious cacio e pepe at a moment's notice.

Cacio e Pepe (Spaghetti With Black Pepper and Pecorino Romano)
Pasta Alla Zozzona (Rigatoni With Sausage, Guanciale, and Egg Yolks)

Serious Eats / Sasha Marx

Rigatoni alla zozzona is the decadent pasta mash-up of Roman amatriciana and carbonara, with a sausage twist.

Pasta Alla Zozzona (Rigatoni With Sausage, Guanciale, and Egg Yolks)
Pasta With Butternut Squash and Sage Brown Butter

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

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 With Butternut Squash and Sage Brown Butter
Pasta chi Vruoccoli Arriminati (Sicilian Pasta With Cauliflower and Toasted Breadcrumbs)

Serious Eats / Sasha Marx

In this recipe, cauliflower is cooked down into a savory-sweet sauce with Sicilian staples: anchovies, pine nuts, raisins, saffron, and toasted breadcrumbs.

Pasta chi Vruoccoli Arriminati (Sicilian Pasta With Cauliflower and Toasted Breadcrumbs)

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Pasta Ai Quattro Formaggi (Creamy Four-Cheese Pasta)

Serious Eats / Daniel Gritzer

Choose your four cheeses wisely for this bold, well-rounded, deeply flavorful, multi-layered, and complex cheesy pasta.

Pasta Ai Quattro Formaggi (Creamy Four-Cheese Pasta)
Pasta con la Bottarga (Pasta With Bottarga)

Serious Eats / Sasha Marx

This aglio e olio variation puts the spotlight on Sardinia's famed salted mullet roe bottarga.

Pasta con la Bottarga (Pasta With Bottarga)
Pasta Cacio e Uova (Neapolitan Pasta With Eggs and Cheese)

Serious Eats / Sasha Marx

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.

Cacio e Uova
Japanese Mentaiko Spaghetti (Pasta With Spicy Cod Roe and Butter Sauce)

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

This dish serves as a simple dinner or late night snack made of delicious, buttery noodles tossed with spicy cured roe and nori strips.

Japanese Mentaiko Spaghetti

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Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Serious Eats / Maureen Celestine

In this recipe, quick pasta is smothered in a spicy tomato sauce with rich cured pork and tangy Pecorino Romano.

Bucatini all'Amatriciana
Shrimp Fra Diavolo (Shrimp and Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce)

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

A simple technique and a pantry ingredient imbues this spicy Italian-American classic with rich shellfish flavor.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo (Shrimp and Pasta With Tomato Sauce)
Spaghetti Puttanesca (Spaghetti With Capers, Olives, and Anchovies)

Serious Eats / Melissa Hom

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.

Spaghetti Puttanesca (Spaghetti With Capers, Olives, and Anchovies)
Roman-Style Fettuccine With Alfredo Sauce

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

This recipe shows you how to make real-deal Roman fettuccine Alfredo with nothing more than butter and cheese.

Roman-Style Fettuccine With Alfredo Sauce

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Penne With Melted-Vegetable Sauce

Serious Eats / Liz Clayman

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 Melted-Vegetable Sauce
Penne With Hot-as-You-Dare Arrabbiata Sauce

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

This simple pasta dish is made with a sauce that's spicy enough to earn its "angry" moniker.

Penne With Hot-as-You-Dare Arrabbiata Sauce
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (Pasta in Garlic and Oil Sauce)

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

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.

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (Pasta in Garlic and Oil Sauce)
Crispy Baked Pasta With Mushrooms, Sausage, and Parmesan Cream Sauce

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

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.

Crispy Baked Pasta With Mushrooms, Sausage, and Parmesan Cream Sauce Recipe