Best pasta dish recipes please?

[IfsAndAnds]

What are your favourite pasta dish recipes?
My DC love pasta and I have to admit to being lazy and buying jar sauces. Can anyone give me good recipes for pasta sauce?

The only jar sauce I would tolerate on pasta is red pesto (dont even like green pesto in a jar)

Best basic sauce for pasta is butter, with cheese, black pepper

Or chilli, garlic, spring onion just warmed in good, very good olive oil, poured over the pasta (and the best olive oil is Greek, dont tell the Italians)

Or if you want a tomatoey sauce, you slowly cook down over a long period of time a tin of toms and first have fried up onion/garlic/herbs etc etc.

Then you can add whatever you want to that.

You can blitz up well cooked broccoli, with cream or ricotta and parmesan etc

Theres loads of possibilities that dont come out of a jar, the problem I find with jar sauces is that they are very stewed in flavour.

cream cheese (the supermarket's cheapest own works fine) stirred into hot pasta, heat through, thinwith a little milk if required. Season to taste. Cook any other ingredients separately and then stir into pasta and sauce.

Really easy sauces/dressings:

Add chopped cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil, basil and pepper to cooked short pasta

Add mascarpone to pretty much any tomato sauce (can be made from tins, passata or fresh chopped tomatoes)

Aglio, oleo, peperoncino - garlic and chilli flakes softened in olive oil makes a nice dressing for spaghetti or linguine.

Tuna - seasoned on its own or with tomato sauce or cream. Salmon is also really nice in cream with or without tomato.

In fact, tuna, tomatoes in different forms and some sort of dairy can be used in endless combinations depending on what you have in your fridge or cupboard for an easy sauce.

https://www.simplycook.com/recipes/penne-alla-rustica-for-2

We just sprinkle in garlic granules and dried rosemary for the first "herb mix" then cumin and smoked paprika for the second mix.
Add some onion and red pepper after the chorizo if you want to increase the veg.

Diana Henry's Turkish tagliatelle is so good. The sweet caramelised onions and the feta are wonderful together.

I love aubergine, and Ottolenghi's pasta alla Norma is my favourite. The aubergine goes lovely and brown in the oven and breaks down to make a rich, silky sauce.

Miso butter greens pasta is a new favourite recipe of mine, it so quick and easy, and unbelievably delicious for a sauce made up almost entirely of kale.

I sauté cherry tomatoes , peppers and onion in a wok while the pasta is cooking in a pan . Add salt pepper , cumin , paprika and any other Indian spice then add creme fraiche , tomato purée and a little bit of veg stock . Add the pasta and some grated cheese and you have creamy pasta with a bit of a kick to it , it's lovely

Bacon, sautéed leeks and toasted pines nuts - stir through with crème fraiche

Amatriciana - cook some pancetta until almost crispy then add onions and cook until they’re soft. Add tin toms with some pasta water and some chilli and garlic. Cook until sauce thickens.

Roast butternut squash and baby toms. Add to pasta with spinach until wilted and mozzarella until it starts to melt.

www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/vegan-recipes/pasta-alla-genovese

I used pine nuts rather than Almond flakes though. I love this!

We have been trying new pasta dishes every month (new years resolution when you’re a foodie 😂)
our faves have been pasta puttanesca Basic idea here if you aren’t a fan of anchovies - or like me think you aren’t - I’d recommend you trying it. They dissolve into nothing and it’s salty and amazing.
We have also loved pasta alla vodka I used a TikTok recipe but this is pretty similar Here

The Gousto three cheese veg packed pasta bake is out of this world!

• Pasta alla Norma
• Pasta cone le sarde
• Puttanesca
• Cauliflower macaroni cheese
• Carbonara
• Carbonara with the addition of any bits I have such as peas, mushrooms and /or onions (I realise technically NOT carbonara, but I'm not sure what it would be called?)

Thank you for all of the recipes, I am going to try them all out!

I used to batch make a tomato based pasta sauce base. Portion and freeze by laying the ziplock bag flat rather than having a block to defrost. Saves you reaching for a jar of sauce which are never great. But we do buy Pesto in jars.

So if any of the above recipes work for you, see if you can double or triple it and freeze it.

We really like this spaghetti with tuna, lemon and broccoli
If we want something a bit more special linguini with garlic, chilli, lots of fresh herbs and fresh crab is delicious. You can sub the prawns for crab if needed.
Have you used nduja with pasta? It's so good, but it does have a bit of a kick. Make a basic tomato sauce with finely chopped red onion, garlic, fresh basil. Dry fry some fennel seeds and then add in the nduja and combine with the tomato sauce. Add a splash of milk and leave to gently simmer for 30 mins before adding your pasta.

Do any of you have any tried and tested bolognese recipes too?

That’s a great tip, thanks!

@IfsAndAnds I used to batch cook a lot, even cooking off mince and again freezing it flat so I didn't have to stand stirring. I have a disability that means I have some not so great days but I could still put a good meal together. I use a food processor for chopping and grating and a slow cooker is a great kitchen gadget to have.

The way I did it was cook 3 at once, eat one and freeze 2 family portions. I do this with roasted Mediterranean veg too, peppers, red onion, garlic, courgettes, cherry tomatoes etc roast it, portion and freeze it (flat again) which you can thaw and add to pasta with the sauce you make ahead.

My Bolognese:
Chop onion, garlic, celery & carrot (in the food processor if you have one). Fry up with chopped bacon.
Fry your mince (I quite like a mix of pork & beef mince) until brown. Add tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, a splash of wine, seasoning & a beef stock cube. Simmer as low as you can for as long as you can.
Simple but delicious.
My other favourite is that I roast courgettes, peppers, onion & garlic & then stir into past with some pesto.

I don’t eat meat, and find this ragù recipe head and shoulders above any other olives tried.