pâtes

Chile Crisp Fettuccine Alfredo With Spinach

Swirling chile crisp, a popular Chinese condiment, and spinach into fettuccine Alfredo gives you an immensely satisfying meatless one-dish dinner. The firecracker crunch of chile crisp intensifies when sizzled in butter before cream tempers its heat. Parmesan heightens the sauce’s savory umami, and pregrated cheese works just fine here. This astoundingly simple meal — it doesn’t even require any chopping — comes together in under 30 minutes but tastes as complex as anything you’d get at a restaurant.

Creamy Corn Pasta With Basil

There’s no cream in this wonderfully summery pasta dish, just a luscious sauce made from puréed fresh corn and sweet sautéed scallions, along with Parmesan for depth and red chile flakes for a contrasting bite. Be sure to add the lemon juice and fresh herbs at the end; the rich pasta really benefits from their bright, fresh flavors. And while this is best made at the height of corn season, it’s still quite good even with out-of-season supermarket ears, or with frozen corn.

Pasta With Garlicky Spinach and Buttered Pistachios

If you want to get the timing just right on this one — no wasted time! — start the sauce a few minutes after you’ve dropped the pasta into the boiling water. Your spinach should be wilted right around the time the pasta is al dente. If that feels too stressful, or the spinach wilts before the pasta is ready, simply turn the heat under the skillet all the way down to low and keep it warm while the pasta finishes. Don’t count this recipe out if you’re not fond of capers. They add a hint of salty brininess without being in-your-face caper-y. A pound of pasta is a lot to toss around, especially with 2 bunches of spinach in the mix, so save that extra quarter-box for your next pot of pasta e fagioli.

Pasta, Green Beans and Potatoes with Pesto

The most elegant pasta dish that Italian cooks have ever invented is astonishingly simple to make. Here, the magical green sauce is tossed with trenette (or any long pasta you can twirl around a fork), tender slices of potato and barely blanched green beans.

Pasta With Kale Pesto and Roasted Butternut Squash

Here is a one-pot meal designed explicitly for the hungriness of a long-distance runner, with garlicky kale pesto and sweet roasted butternut squash. Making the pesto with kale instead of basil gives it a structure the basil-rich original lacks, and it interacts beautifully with the crisp-and-soft smoothness of the roasted squash. A terrific dish.