Pasta & Noodles
1283 recipes found
Chicken Spaghetti
This comforting casserole is a staple at picnics and potlucks across the American South, and it’s no wonder why. Creamy, cheesy noodles are tossed with tender bits of chicken, tomatoes and chiles, then topped with even more cheese and baked until bubbly. There have been many iterations of this dish over the years: Some recipes call for Velveeta and condensed cream of mushroom soup, while Craig Claiborne’s childhood recipe calls for a quarter pound of ground beef and pork in addition to a whole chicken. In this version, a flavorful combination of Cheddar and Parmesan are used, and milk and chicken stock thickened with a roux stand in for the canned soup. Feel free to use whatever kind of cooked chicken you like — leftover roast chicken, rotisserie chicken or a couple chicken breasts you baked just for the occasion. Chicken spaghetti is the perfect casserole to prepare ahead of time and freeze, making it ideal for large gatherings or for stocking a loved one’s freezer (see Tip).
Shoyu Ramen
Soy sauce, or shoyu, dashi and chicken broth are the foundation of this comforting Japanese noodle soup, which is garnished with hearty toppings like soy-marinated eggs, pork belly, pickled bamboo shoots and fish cakes. Traditionally made with homemade dashi and chashu, or Japanese pork belly, you can speed things up by using instant dashi powder and store-bought chashu. (If you make chashu from scratch, use the cooking liquid to flavor the soup.) The soy-marinated eggs must be prepared at least 6 hours in advance, but that leaves time for other ingredient prep, including rounding up a range of textural toppings, which can all be found at a Japanese market. As for the ramen noodles, frozen, fresh or dried all do the trick.
Egg Rolls
With a garlicky-ginger pork and cabbage filling tucked inside a crisp and chewy wrapper, egg rolls are a much-loved Chinese-American dish that is fun to make at home. Inspired by traditional East Asian spring rolls, egg rolls are thought to have first appeared at a Chinese restaurant in New York City in the 1930s. Unlike spring roll wrappers, egg roll wrappers are thicker and made with eggs, so they develop delightfully crackly bubbles on the surface during frying. The filling in this version includes ground pork, shredded carrots and cabbage (you can use a bagged slaw mix) and vermicelli rice noodles, but feel free to swap out half the pork with shrimp, or replace the meat with mushrooms for a vegetarian version by adding them to the slaw mix. Prepare a batch of egg rolls in advance and freeze (see Tip), then fry when the mood strikes.
Spaghetti Stir-Fry With Chicken
This is nowhere near a traditional Chinese stir-fry or Italian spaghetti dish. Instead, it’s a recipe my amu (the Bengali term for mother) made by combining staples from her pantry and fridge to reflect the flavors of our favorite takeout without the need for specific noodles or a wok. By using frozen mixed vegetables, there’s only minimal prep and knife work required. The chicken, aromatics and vegetables cook while the pasta boils, so it all comes together quickly. Serve it just out of the pot for a hot meal, or eat it cold the next day, straight out of the fridge.
Okinawan Soba
Though soba usually refers to buckwheat noodles, Okinawan soba uses wheat noodles that more closely resemble ramen. The chef Steven Pursley, whose family comes from the island prefecture off the Southern coast of mainland Japan, makes his own noodles from scratch. You can use store-bought fresh ramen noodles or another thicker Asian egg noodle for this soup, which gets its flavor from a delicate pork and bonito broth. You can find the noodles, kombu, sake, mirin, bonito, fish cake and red pickled ginger at Japanese markets or well-stocked Asian grocery stores.
Shrimp Pasta
Consider this the shrimp version of vongole rosso, the classic Italian dish of clams tossed with pasta, tomatoes, garlic and white wine. Swapping the shellfish makes for an easy weeknight dinner. The shrimp’s briny sweetness is the star here, and cherry or grape tomatoes add a burst of acidity as well as a pop of color. Any long pasta shape will work well — just be sure to cook the noodles to al dente to give the dish great texture. Serve with the rest of the white wine and a simple green salad.
Pancit
Often served for special occasions like Noche Buena or birthdays, pancit is a Filipino dish of stir-fried noodles, meat and vegetables coated in a savory-sweet sauce. Pancit, which means “noodles”, has many delicious variations. This one, made with tender vermicelli rice noodles, carrots, cabbage, and chicken or pork, is known specifically as pancit bihon. Feel free to add other vegetables like green beans or snow peas. You can top the noodles with lechon kawali, crispy and juicy fried pork belly, and use the stock from that dish instead of chicken stock. (Just be sure to adjust the salt as necessary.) Pancit can be prepared in large batches, but however it’s served, include wedges of calamansi, if available. It’s a citrus fruit native to the Philippines that will brighten up the entire dish.
Mussels and Cod Bucatini With Spicy Tomato Sauce
Simple yet celebratory, this hearty seafood pasta is a party dish that your guests will want to tuck into. White wine-steamed mussels and tomato-poached cod top a mound of bucatini coated in a buttery, brothy sauce. Calabrian chile paste adds depth of flavor to the tomato sauce and a small hit of heat. Of course, you can use as much of it as you — and your guests — can handle. If this dish is served on its own, it’s enough to feed eight. As part of a feast, it’s easily 12 servings or more. For smaller celebrations or a weeknight meal, it can be halved easily.
Yaki Udon
Pleasantly chewy udon noodles are tossed with a mix of vegetables and meat, then coated in a salty-sweet combination of soy and oyster sauce, mirin, rice vinegar and sugar in this version of yaki udon, the Japanese stir-fry dish. Using precooked frozen udon noodles, available at Asian markets in vacuum-sealed bags, ensures that they don’t overcook and fall apart. Keep them on hand for a fast meal: Just give them a quick bath in boiling water before stir-frying alongside just about any meat and vegetables. While using dark soy sauce (see Tip) and oyster sauce is not traditional, this variation combines them for a thicker and slightly sweeter sauce.
Lemony Pasta With Braised White Beans
Braising canned white beans with garlic, chile flakes and olive oil is a classic recipe — a speedy, meatless, very satisfying weeknight meal. This version turns the mix into a sauce for pasta, brightened by lemon juice and zest, and rounded out with fresh parsley or arugula and cherry tomatoes, a juicy contrast to the velvety beans. The pasta water also plays an important role here, keeping the beans from becoming pasty. Use the best olive oil you can, especially for drizzling at the end. That’s where you’ll really taste it, and a robust, herbal oil will add a lot of character to this simple dish.
Naengmyeon (Cold Noodles in Chilled Beef Broth)
The secret ingredient to mul naengmyeon, the North Korean cold noodle dish that is now a staple in South Korea and the world, is the mul — water. Whether in the form of dongchimi (radish water kimchi) broth or cold water from your tap or fridge, H2O is a powerful ingredient: When mixed with a rich beef yuksu, the brothy foundation of this dish, then frozen for a couple of hours, it becomes a savory slushy that makes the cold, chewy buckwheat noodles taste even more alchemically divine. This recipe is dense, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s the real deal, and comes from the family behind Olle restaurant in New York City. The main lesson of naengmyeon is that most of the work happens on the front end. Once you have the broth made and the toppings assembled, for the next few days, your meals will be sorted — a bowl of naengmyeon available to you at the drop of a hat, the mere boil of a noodle.
Orzotto Alla Carbonara
This carbonara swaps out spaghetti for smooth, velvety orzo. It’s up to you how much you want to treat this eggy, peppery comfort like pasta or like risotto, where orzo is used like rice (minus all that stirring). For more of a risotto flavor, you could cook a finely diced shallot, maybe even some celery or celery seed, in the guanciale fat before adding the orzo, then add a splash of white wine. This creamy pantry dish is best eaten right off the heat, but it is odd how, even straight out of the fridge, it still stays glossy somehow, like a dreamy pasta salad.
Ricotta Pasta Bake
Thanks to a whole lot of ricotta, this baked pasta is so creamy and milky that it’s nearly as fluffy as pudding. The dish has a sweet tang from roasted lemon and tomatoes, plus a crisp bread crumb topping to contrast all that plushness. Because the sauce is mostly cheese, it’s worth seeking out ricotta that doesn’t have gum or stabilizers; you’ll get the best results from ricotta that is made of just milk, salt and perhaps a vinegar or natural culture.
Pasta con Palta (Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta)
In 2016, Sandra A. Gutierrez began to narrow down a list of 9,000 recipes to about 500 for her encyclopedic Latin American cookbook called “Latinísimo: Home Recipes from the 21 Countries of Latin America” (Knopf, 2023). She wanted to focus on the dishes people made at home for a readership of novice cooks. This easy, weeknight recipe from Chile emulates that spirit with the use of Hass avocados –– the main variety produced in the country –– to make a rich and silky sauce that comes together in a blender as the pasta cooks. For best results, sauce and eat the dish immediately to enjoy its velvety texture.
Chili Mac
“Nothing induces a feeling of security and comfort better than the come-hither aroma of an honest pot of chili mac keeping warm on the stove.” Many would agree with what Jane and Michael Stern wrote in “The Lexicon of Real American Food” (Lyons Press, 2011), whether they’ve had the thrifty, hearty combination of macaroni and chili at a family dinner table, around a campfire, bellied up to a bar somewhere near Lake Michigan or even in an M.R.E. in a military dining room. This supersavory version is a cinch, requiring just one pot and minimal chopping. (For another common chili pasta, see this Cincinnati chili con carne.)
Hiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki
Meals seldom get more soulful than okonomiyaki — the Japanese cabbage pancake is soothing and filling, hearty with pork and savory with a topping of seaweed and bonito flakes. Its name stems from “okonomi,” which translates closely to “how you like,” and the recipe is an exercise in variation and flexibility. With a framework of shredded cabbage and its accompanying batter, any number of proteins, vegetables, cheeses and seasonings are fair game, yielding a meal that’s as personal as you’d like it to be. This iteration’s locality is commonly attributed to Hiroshima: the layered pancake’s noodles add texture while absorbing sauce and flavor from pork belly, a fried egg and whichever other toppings of yours are adorning the dish. If you’re cooking with a griddle, it’s possible to make multiple pancakes at once; but if you’re using a pan on your stovetop, it’s worth cooking them one at a time, then serving each immediately.
Easy Couscous
Because the couscous in American grocery stores is already steamed and dried, it just requires hydrating in hot liquid for about 5 minutes to transform the North African semolina pasta into fluffy beads. This recipe makes 4 cups of cooked couscous, but you can follow a one-to-one ratio of couscous to liquid to make any quantity you like. Couscous is the ultimate blank canvas: Eat with tagine or grilled meat, or toss into a salad.
Baasto iyo Suugo Tuuna (Pasta and Spiced Tuna Sauce)
Thanks to Somalia’s exposure to the ocean — it has the longest coastline in mainland Africa — seafood is an abundant resource. Topped with a rich, spiced tuna suugo (tomato sauce), this pasta dish is a staple in many Somali households, and comes together easily thanks to canned tuna and store-bought marinara sauce. Pasta is a culinary relic of Italian colonialism in Somalia that Somalis have long reimagined into their own new thing. This dish also has different spellings throughout Somalia, including “tuuna” after the English word or “toonno” following the Italian word “tonno.” This pasta sauce gets its unique taste from the addition of fresh cilantro and warm spices, including xawaash, a seven-spice mix that incorporates bold flavors like turmeric, cardamom and cumin. Serve with a salad or enjoy the baasto on its own.
Pasta With Corn, Mint and Red Onions
Practically a no-cook recipe, this celebration of corn, tomatoes and plenty of herbs is about as easy as summer pasta gets. A dollop or two of ricotta adds milky softness, enriching the tangy, garlicky tomatoes and plump kernels of corn, but you can leave it out if you prefer. Although this dish is best with seasonal tomatoes and freshly shucked corn, it’s also excellent made with frozen corn and year-round grape tomatoes, cut into cubes. You can serve this versatile salad warm, at room temperature or even cold as a pasta salad. And leftovers make a terrific lunch the next day.
Za’atar and Labneh Spaghetti
Creamy labneh produces a pasta dish with the texture of an Alfredo, but with a bright tang that brings levity. A Middle Eastern yogurt that is strained or hung until the texture of soft cheese, labneh provides a rich, luscious texture, but strained yogurts, like Greek yogurt or skyr, are suitable substitutes. Be sure to add the dairy at the end, and don’t let it come to a boil while you stir. Boiling will cause the yogurt to break, leaving you with a sauce that isn’t creamy or rich. If the pasta sauce tightens up and breaks from sitting for too long, there’s a simple solution: Add some reserved pasta water and stir vigorously over medium-low heat until the sauce comes back together, lusciously smooth, saucy and glossy.
Chilled Soba in Dashi With Tomatoes and Corn
This chilled noodle dish is extremely refreshing on a hot summer’s day. Corn, shiitake mushrooms and tomatoes simmer with water to make a vegan take on dashi that is packed with umami. The buckwheat noodles have a lovely nutty flavor, adding depth to the dish, but feel free to try with different noodles, such as thin wheat noodles (somen) or rice noodles. The dashi is extremely light and clean, while the toppings add bursts of flavor. The balance between sweet, salty and sour is very delicate, so be sure to be somewhat pedantic when measuring for seasoning. You can get ahead by making the dashi a day in advance and chilling it overnight.
Creamy One-Pot Orzo With Corn and Bacon
In “Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook,” Joe Yonan suggests grating corn to take the kernels off and extract the delicious milky pulp from the cob. This method maximizes the amount of pure corn flavor that you can add to any dish. Here, most of the corn is grated to create a super creamy, one-pot pasta that tastes sweet and summery. Calabrian chile paste, which is usually made of chiles from the Calabria region of Italy, oil and vinegar add heat, acidity and a bit of smokiness to this dish. If you can’t find it, swap in some homemade red chile sauce or harissa.
Goulash
Hungarian goulash, a stew of paprika-spiced braised meat and vegetables, likely arrived in the United States with a wave of immigrants in the late 1800s. The dish began a game of telephone, slowly evolving into something new entirely. While American-style goulash may not bear much resemblance to its Hungarian namesake, the hearty one-pot dish has endured as an easy and comforting family weeknight dinner. Made with ground beef, bell peppers, diced tomatoes and macaroni, it falls somewhere between a beef chili and a meaty pasta. A sprinkle of Cheddar, stirred in just before serving, thickens the sauce and adds richness. Serve the goulash on its own or with a green vegetable and cornbread on the side.
Baked Spaghetti
This comforting baked pasta feeds a crowd and is an easy way to upgrade everyday spaghetti with meat sauce. Once baked, the spaghetti casserole slices into neat squares, and the layer of ricotta and Parmesan filling give it the rich flavor of a lasagna. Feel free to play around with the recipe, swapping in Italian sausage or ground turkey for the ground beef and sautéing leftover vegetables and adding them to the sauce. If you’re planning in advance, you can assemble the casserole (through the end of Step 5) and store in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to bake.