when you cook pasta, do you mainly use tomato based sauce?I do and i am fed up of them, please please inspire me

[papaya]

any ideas would me greatly GREATLY appreciated, i dont know if its the heat, but my creativity has gone out of the window....

tia

I sometimes mix a few spoons of pesto in with a knob of butter and some extra parmesan. VERY QUICK and easy.

what about some white sauce based ones.... eg mushroom, chicken and wine, cheese and onion, ham, bacon......? See anything that goes with white sauce!

carbonara is good

You can try using Double Cream based--

You can saute Sun-Dried Tomatoes and garlic until slightly browned, stir in 1/2 cup or so of white wine, let it burn off a bit, and then add 1 1/2 cups of doublecream (heavy cream over here in US) and a cup of fresh grated parm cheese. Stir over medium heat, be sure to get it incorporated, but don't overdo it as it will break down into butter. You want to get a lovely, creamy sauce.

I also do an eggless version of carbonara.

I chop 4-6 rashers of streaky bacon, dice one onion and crush one clove of garlic.

I gently fry the onion and bacon together (I dont brown it).

Then I add in the garlic after a few minutes. Then i pour in a small carton of double cream and let it simmer for a few minutes.

Then take it off the heat and chuck in a handfull of grated parmesan.

One of my favourites (which dh won't eat as he doesn't like tinned fish) is a no-cook sauce consisting of tuna whizzed up with walnuts, olive oil, lemon zest, fresh basil, fresh parsley, garlic and a dash of Worcester sauce.
Very stodgy but you serve it with a big green salad.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm sunchowder. Will try that this week.

some more good recipes on the BBC site: \link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/pastawithcheesefondu_72143.shtmlchesse fondu sauce}

ye olde student fave - pasta with sweetcorn, tuna and mayonnaise. I usually replace tuna with tinned mackerel these days though.

some more good recipes on the BBC site: cheese fondue sauce

onions,mushrooms.olive oil,lemon juice.mushroom truffle jar and dash of creme fraiche...mmm delicious!

All of these look so good!!! Thanks Mars, I hope it comes out great, it's one of my favorite sauces...

I also, if i have some leftover roasted veg (courgette, red onion, red/yellow/green peppers, cherry tomatoes, garlic cloves, broccoli etc), mix that in with some cooked pasta and extra oil if you need it. Top with LOTS of grated cheddar & Parmesan cheese. Then bake in the oven for 20 mins.

A delicious one that I had in Carluccio's recently. Slice courgette into very small sticks, about the length of match sticks but a bit thicker. Fry in olive oil with crushed garlic and very finely chopped red chilli. Serve mixed into pasta shapes, with black pepper and parmesan if desired.

A favourite from student days. Cook spagetti until al dente. Meanwhile gently fry some garlic in oil in a large pan. Add the spagetti and stir, then add a beaten egg and stir so that the spagetti gets coated with egg. Add soy sauce and keep stirring until the egg is cooked.

Very simple - very delicious - smoked salmon, double cream, parmesan, lots of black pepper.

melted gorgonzola - yummy!

my standbys:
Rocket pesto: bag of rocket, pine nuts, parmesan, few glugs of oo, whizz in blender
Or: steam spinach, and blitz in blender with knob of butter or few big spoonfuls of cream, salt and pepper
Or: boil broccoli florets for 3/4 mins til softening, then mash into drained pasta with oo and parmesan (superior version, if you can be arsed: fry garlic and chilli and mashed in with broccoli]
Or: grate several courgettes, and fry gently till soft and brown. Then mix into pasta. Ideally with some cream.

Creme Fraiche is a good (slightly lower in fat) alternative to double cream and doesn't split like the cream. Use it in the same way.

Put roughly chopped courgettes in a heavy pan with loads of olive oil, garlic and dried chilli. Put a lid on and 'steam'. Keep moving the pan to mush up the courgettes. I just mix it with pasta, but you could add pancetta or lardons to make it less veggie. It is a rip off Jamie Oliver 'smashed courgette paste' recipe which he uses as a dip. My 6month dd loved this the other day!

Ooops just noticed this is almost the same as Bran's recipe... but less faff

we love spaghetti with fresh basil, half and half of fresh lemon juice and good olive oil, and parmesan, fab and lovely any time of year!!
also do spaghetti with rocket, finely sliced chilis, lemon, prosciutto and a bit of olive oil
yummy

Put some pancetta lardons in a roasting dish, drizzle with garlic oil, or smash a garlic clove and add plain olive oil. Cook in the oven for 8-10 mins on high heat, and mix into cooked spaghetti or linguine, chop parsley over. Serve w black pepper. I also sometimes add a bag of rocket, which wilts into the hot pasta, and have even roasted the pancetta with some cherry toms.

Saute batoned courgettes, sliced shallots and button mushrooms in olive oil, when soft, add pepper, creme fraiche, and torn strips of parma ham and torn basil. Lovely with pasta shapes, esp farfalle.

Oil, garlic and chopped dried chillis, I learnt this one from Italian university students. Basic but scrumptious.

melt olive oil & butter, add sage, add to cooked pasta along with roasted butternut squash in small chunks and roasted pine nuts, add parmesan.