Homemade pasta sauces

[HaroldMeeker]

I'm a bit fed up with pesto and apart from the obvious bolognaise and generic cheese and tomato type sauces, I can't think of much else to go with pasta.

Is anyone willing to share any suggestions? I'm happy to cook from scratch, but I'm singularly unimaginative when it comes to pasta for some reason. I've no idea what I'm looking for, just something interesting and tasty.

Not a recipe but I like smoked salmon pasta.

I make it up as i go along. I gently fry an onion, then add some dried dill or parsley or both, then some cream cheese and natural yogurt (or cream) and chopped smoked salmon. Don't heat too long as the smoked salmon doesn't need cooking.

If I'm feeling greedy also add some prawns.

Mix through pasta and top with parmesan

Three really quick pasta sauces:

Chop baby plum tomatoes (or any tomatoes, really) and fry with garlic. Add some cooking water from pasta bit by bit while that cooks to make a sauce. It’s nicer - lighter - than pasta sauces made from passata IMO. You could add cream or burrata at the end to be indulgent.

Boil broccoli florets along with pasta. Fry some garlic, chilli flakes and anchovy fillets at the same time. Mix with the drained pasta and broccoli. Has a pesto-like consistency.

Tomato and mascarpone - cook a tin of peeled plum tomatoes and once reduced add in couple of spoonfuls of mascarpone.

Works well with linguine - crab (plus prawns if you’d like them too), creme fraiche, lemon juice, garlic, salt and some chilli flakes.

Blue cheese (e.g. Gorgonzola) with cream

Nigella does a great anchovy one (she calls it 'Sluts Spaghetti). I think it is in 'Nigella Express'.

Sausage pasta: remove sausage from skins and cut into rough chunks, fry with some fennel seeds. When browned, add a handful of chopped tomatoes, some chopped garlic and chilli (optional). fry for a few seconds then add equal amounts milk and wine - about 100ml each. Bubble to reduce. When it's a minute or two from being where you want it, add a few handfuls of spinach to wilt.

Add 2-3 large tablespoons of creme fraiche. Serve on pasta with lemon juice, black pepper, parmesan and salt.

I've done arrabbiata with aubergine as per this recipe a couple of times recently.

Courgette glut means we've had slowly fried sliced courgettes cooked with garlic, chilli and lemon zest and served with feta cheese a few times recently.

onion, bacon and mushrooms with garlic and a splash of wine and some cream/creme fraiche is my go to when I'm in a hurry.

I’ve recently been making a tomato based sauce with fennel seeds and nduja sausage. It’s got quite a quick but is delicious.

I don’t follow an exact recipe but basically toast off some fennel seeds. Fry off some sausage meat, red onion, garlic and tomato purée.
Add in some Nduja sausage (I buy in Waitrose where it comes refrigerated in little sachets.) To this add a splash of balsamic vinegar, some basil and oregano, a tin of chopped tomatoes. Add a pinch of salt, a pinch of sugar and allow to simmer over a low heat for 30 mins.

Quite a kick!

I like a lentil sauce (tarka dahl) with pasta.

Sauce:
Lots of golden fried-garlic in slivers +fried onion- +with grated carrot - simmered with red lentils until soft and soupy. A few handfuls of chopped spinach stirred in at the end

I like a really simple sauce, although it's not really a sauce, more a coating for pasta! Aglio e olio - you just use a generous portion of olive oil, slowly fry some thinly sliced garlic and then toss the cooked pasta in the garlic oil, add a bit of pasta water to help it all stick and then toss in Parmesan, parsley, salt and pepper. You could also fry some bacon and/or add some chopped chili in with the garlic to mix it up a little. It's basic but pretty delicious!

Spaghetti Puttanesca.
Fry off small tin chopped anchovies, garlic and chopped chilli (if you like heat) and then add a tablespoon or so of capers, a jar of drained pitted olives (kakamata ones are nicest IMO) and then add a tin of tomatoes and a teaspoon of oregano.
Simmer while your pasta cooks and then add the drained spaghetti to the sauce. Delicious!

Pasta 'carbonara'
-add chopped peppers or cooked chopped veg/chopped ham or bacon/ fried garlic/chilli (if liked) to hot cooked pasta.
-add olive oil and heat a little more
-pour in beaten egg (and cream if liked) and stir as it cooks on the pasta

Pasta salad
Cooked pasta
Cooked mixed veg
(optional tuna or other fish or cooked meat)
chopped spring onion
mayo

Stir together.

Fry some bacon, add some onions lazy chilli garlic, stir till onions are soft, add chopped bell pepper cook till soft, add a tin of tomatoes, jarred Italian herbs, salt and pepper cook until slightly reduced, add fresh basil and serve.

I do that Puttanesca but I do it slightly differently!

I liquidise one onion, tin of anchovies, a few tbsp of capers, and black olives until it is an unsavoury looking paste.
I then slowly fry it, and add chopped tomatoes at the end.

I went to a restaurant abroad and it was the very best puttanesca ever and they told me how!

However curly yours sounds lush too.

Courgette glut means we've had slowly fried sliced courgettes cooked with garlic, chilli and lemon zest and served with feta cheese a few times recently.

Got to give this one a go. Courgettes are really nice in carbonara too. I’m too lazy to have considered this a quick pasta dish, but it’s a goody. Essentially just courgette instead of pancetta.

Tomato, aubergine and mushroom sauce. Start with sauteing a chopped onion or two (red or brown-skinned) in a little olive oil. Add at least two cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed, and a chopped aubergine. Give the aubergine a good long time to get soft and golden. Chewy aubergine is not good. Once it's approaching that stage, add sliced mushrooms (quantity to taste) and once they're starting to cook, add a tin/carton of chopped tomatoes (or passata, or fresh tomatoes if you have a lot and they are nicely ripe), season well with salt and pepper, and add some oregano and/or basil. Cook until all the vegetables are cooked through and it's reduced nicely. Mix with cooked pasta. Serve with lots of grated Parmesan or Pecorino.

Many people add a pinch of sugar to tomato sauce. I always add some sundried tomato paste, or failing that, ordinary tomato puree from a jar or tube. Parsley would be nice too. Optional extras: anchovies chopped fine into a paste (not too much), or a little Worcestershire sauce. Chopped black olives (or green, I suppose, or a little tapenade). Red wine.

Ooh yes, capers would be good in this too.

Basically OP - Knock yourself out, pretty much anything can go on pasta.

Tomato sauces take various veg well. Fry up veg, onions and garlic, add tomato, off you go. Likewise cream sauces. Fry up bacon, mushroom, onion, throw in a few peas or courgette, add cream or creme fraiche at the end.

I do a lot of fishy sauces. So smoked salmon, or prawns, courgette or peas, finish off with lemon and cream or creme fraiche. On do a tomato and garlic sauce, with added chilli.

Favourite and super easy, lots of virgin olive oil, garlic, generous glug of white wine, plum tomatoes, chuck in fresh clams, steam, add more olive oil, add parsley. 10 minutes.

as it's courgette season and my neigjbour supplies me with one almost daily...
cook cubed cougette together with the pasta.
when drained add a tub of creme cheese, press in some garlic, add some fresh basil or other herb of choice and season to taste.

Veg sauce, make a batch and freeze. Chop up all veg quite small, anything lurking in the bottom of the fridge, maybe a tin of corn or peas, frozen veg etc. Fry onions peppers etc in a big saucepan, for extra flavour, add stock, some lentils, big couscous or tinned pulses, Tom purée, seasoning, dried Italian herbs, Simmer until cooked.. portion and freeze. I keep grated cheese and philly in the fridge to make it creamy.
Bit of effort, clear out the fridge, lots of quick meals and easy 5million a day.

OMG my stomach is rumbling just reading some of these. Why have I never thought of some of these??

Thank you all!

This is tasty:

littlequesnelrecipesdotcom.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/jamie-olivers-tomato-caper-and-balsamic-sauce/

I also like salmon which I cook in the oven with a bit of white wine in a covered dish, then mix the fish cooked wine with roule and add that sauce to the pasta, then flake the fish in.

Alternatively, you can do one with smoked salmon, crème fraîche, parmesan, lemon and optional fresh herbs, with the smoked salmon partly mixed through and partly shredded onto the top of the dish.

I also like a (very unhealthy but yummy) gorgonzola sauce which is literally just gorgonzola and crème fraîche, and I like to add some poppy seeds in for a bit of fun.

You can also do a tasty meatball sauce in the slow cooker - I buy ready made meatballs (part pork part beef is my preference), add a tin of chopped tomatoes, some tomato puree, some frozen onion, garlic paste, frozen peppers and a few chunks of butternut squash/sweet potato which will thicken it up. Add some chicken stock powder/one or two chicken Oxo cubes, and a little splosh of red wine if you have it (balsamic might work if not I think), but not too much or it will be too liquid. Ideally get it up to boiling before you put it into the actual slow cooker dish, and the cook on low for 8 hours ish. Yummy with tagliatelle.

This is amazing, and really easy: food52.com/recipes/13722-marcella-hazan-s-tomato-sauce-with-onion-butter

Pasta Primavera is quick and easy, use a selection any green vegetables eg, courgette, peas, chopped green beans, broccoli florets, etc.
At the same time as your pasta is cooking, cook the vegetables (don't over cook them). Drain the pasta, and stir in the cooked vegetables. You can add a knob of butter, or a glug of olive oil, some crushed garlic if you like.
Serve with grated cheese for a light fresh pasta dish.