Cozy, cheesy, and guaranteed to make the whole table happy. ♡

With our boys starting school next week (first day of daycare and pre-K — my heart!), I’m lining up a few low-fuss dinners like this baked ziti to help us all do our best to get back into the school year routine. This one’s a forever favorite — tender pasta tossed with savory Italian sausage, crispy pancetta, fresh spinach, and plenty of melty mozzarella and Parmesan, all tossed with a jar of your favorite marinara sauce and baked until bubbly and golden. It’s one of those standby recipes that’s ultra-simple, endlessly customizable, freezer-friendly, and a win with kiddos and adults alike.

We like to serve ours up with a side salad or some air-fryer broccoli, garlic bread, maybe a glass of red wine. And if there are leftovers, they reheat like a dream for an easy lunch the next day. It’s the kind of cozy comfort we’re ready to bring back this time of year. Let’s make some together!

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Meet the simple side dish we’ve been loving lately! ♡

This lemon Parmesan pearl couscous is perfectly balanced with creamy, cheesy, citrusy flavors. Plus, I adore the texture of those tiny, chewy, perfect little pearls! If you’ve never cooked with pearl couscous before, it’s made from semolina (just like traditional Italian pasta) and cooks up quickly in around 10 minutes. I like to toast the couscous first in a bit of garlic butter for extra flavor, then simmer it with chicken stock until tender, then finish it off with a generous handful of freshly grated Parmesan and a bright squeeze of lemon juice. So simple and delicious!

As you can imagine, this recipe is endlessly versatile. You can stir in some greens, toss in your favorite protein or roasted veggies, sprinkle some fresh herbs or toasted nuts on top. However you serve it, this quick and easy side dish is sure to become a new favorite. Let’s make a quick batch!

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5 ingredients, 25 minutes and so much flavor! ♡

This garlic miso pasta recipe has quickly become a new favorite here in our house. It’s made with a silky garlic butter sauce that’s kicked up a notch with the addition of miso and Parmesan, adding the most delicious nutty, umami, creamy layers of flavor to the sauce. It’s one of those versatile creamy pasta recipes that can easily be paired with whatever protein or veggies you love best. And, best of all, it’s made with simple ingredients that we almost always keep on hand, making it easy to improvise at the last minute.

So whether you’re whipping up a quick weeknight dinner or looking for a cozy elegant meal for a dinner party, be sure to bookmark this one and give it a try. I know you’re going to love it!

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Everyone needs a good fettuccine alfredo recipe. ♡

This classic creamy pasta will forever be one of our family’s favorite comfort foods. We actually had the privilege of trying authentic alfredo a few years back at the restaurant where it was “born” in Rome (absolutely delicious, tossed simply with butter and Parmesan). But I have to admit, the American in me will always have a soft spot for the nostalgic Olive Garden-style alfredo of my childhood. By contrast to the Roman version, Italian-American alfredo sauce is extra creamy and velvety, made with additional cream, garlic, flour (to thicken) and a pinch of nutmeg for seasoning. And when served up nice and warm, I’m convinced this dish is comfort food at its finest.

Here in our family, we usually serve alfredo topped with pan-seared chicken or shrimp, but feel free to add whatever other protein or veggies you might prefer. Or, of course, just enjoy the pasta plain! I’ve also included some ideas below for fun twists on the classic (such as adding lemon, truffle oil or Cajun seasoning) if you’d like to shake things up. However you make it, fettuccine alfredo is pretty much guaranteed to be a winner.

So the next time you’re craving some comfort food, let’s make pasta together!

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Cozy up, friends, because this creamy pumpkin pasta is about to become a new fall favorite. ♡

It’s made with a velvety, creamy, comforting pumpkin sauce that’s seasoned with garlic and lots of fresh sage. Then to balance the subtle sweetness of the pumpkin, we’ll toss the pasta with some zesty Italian sausage, fresh kale, and lots of salty Parmesan. It’s an absolutely irresistible mix of slightly-sweet and savory, fresh and earthy flavors that our entire family loved. You’ll definitely be going back for seconds!

As always, there are lots of options to customize this recipe to your liking, if you’d like to swap in a different protein, add some veggies, or make the recipe gluten-free or vegetarian. This creamy pumpkin sauce is just one that you’re definitely going to want to add to your repertoire. So the next time you’re craving some pasta, grab a can of pumpkin purée and let’s make this one together!

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Seriously cannot get enough of these noodles lately. ♡

As you’ve probably noticed over the years, we’re huge fans of just about every kind of noodle stir-fry here in our house. But this particular combination of ingredients has become our go-to as of late, especially because of the short ingredient list and quick time frame. Definitely a life-saver on busy weeknights!

I wrote the recipe below using beef and broccoli and wavy noodles (one of my favorite combos), but this dish is honestly endlessly customizable with whatever protein, veggies and noodles you happen to have on hand. The key is the simple Chinese-inspired ginger garlic sauce that brings it all together. It’s made with a base of butter, soy sauce, and a hint of toasted sesame oil, which creates a richly-flavored, creamy, savory sauce that coats each of the noodles. Then I highly recommend topping each bowl with a generous sprinkling of chili crisp (for those of you who love some spice) and furikake seasoning (not spicy and so irresistible), which will pretty much guarantee you’ll be back for seconds.

Let’s do this!

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High-protein, one-pot, super-simply, flavor-packed pasta dinner?

Sign me up. ♡

I improvised this cheesy taco pasta recipe recently when I was (yet again) trying to appease my pasta-loving toddler while hitting my own protein goals for the day. And it ended up being a total success with only one dish to clean — a weeknight win-win! Simply brown up a batch of ground beef (or chicken, pork, etc) with a few veggies, add pasta and seasonings and broth and simmer until cooked, stir in a bag of shredded cheese until it’s nice and melty, serve it up nice and hot and enjoy. I mean, really, what’s not to love about this one?

Let’s make some taco pasta!

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This roasted veggie pasta was an instant hit in our house!

I mean, it’s hard to go wrong in our book with mixing a big pan of caramelized veggies with pasta. But we loved the simplicity of the butter-balsamic-garlic sauce here, which perfectly complemented the flavors of the roasted veggies without overpowering them. When tossed with a generous handful of salty freshly-grated Parm and lots of fresh basil, this dish was absolutely bursting with big, fresh, summertime flavors. We went back for seconds…and then thirds! Couldn’t get enough of this one. ♡

The veggie options here are totally flexible, so please feel free to use whatever sounds good (or is overflowing in your garden, if you happen to have a green thumb!). You could also add in an extra protein if you’d like (such as chicken, sausage, shrimp, etc). And while I love the warm roasted veggies here fresh out of the oven, we can vouch that this recipe tastes equally delicious served as more of a cold pasta salad, so be sure to enjoy those leftovers too.

Let’s make some veggie pasta!

Roasted Vegetable Pasta | 1-minute video

Roasted Vegetable Pasta Ingredients

Here are a few quick notes about the ingredients you will need to make this roasted veggie pasta recipe:

• Veggies: I love a summertime mix of fresh zucchini, eggplant and red onion for this pasta. When evenly cut into bite-sized pieces and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, they roast and caramelize beautifully in the oven.
• Tomatoes: Cherry tomatoes add a delicious pop of juicy sweetness and a touch of acidity to the pasta. They don’t need to roast quite as long as the other veggies, so I recommend adding them in halfway through roasting.
• Pasta: I used mezze rigatoni for the batch shown here, but just about any shape of pasta will work for this recipe. If you are making this recipe gluten-free, just use your favorite brand of gf pasta.
• Butter: Salted butter forms a yummy, creamy base for the balsamic garlic sauce. If you only have unsalted butter on hand, no worries, just add in an extra 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt.
• Seasonings: A simple mix of pressed (or minced) fresh garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, and balsamic vinegar give this sauce a savory and slighly-sweet-and-spicy kick. Feel free to increase the amount of any of these ingredients if desired.
• Parmesan: We’ll mix a generous amount of freshly-grated Parmesan into the sauce to give it some extra umami, cheesy flavor. As always, be sure to buy a block of Parm and grate it by hand if you would like it to melt smoothly into the sauce.
• Basil: Finally, we’ll finish the pasta with a generous sprinkling of finely-chopped basil leaves, which add a delicious pop of herby fresh flavor to the dish.

Recipe Tips

Detailed recipe instructions are included in the recipe box at the bottom of this post. But here are a few extra tips to help make this recipe a success!

• Cut the vegetables evenly. Try to cut the eggplant, zucchini and red onion chunks into more or less equally-sized pieces so that they will cook evenly.
• Don’t overcrowd the veggies. Use a large baking sheet or two medium baking sheets so that you have enough room to spread the veggies out in a single layer. This will help them to cook evenly and get nice and browned and caramelized (instead of steamed).
• Grate the Parmesan by hand. If possible, purchase a block of Parmesan and grate the cheese by hand so that it will melt smoothly into the pasta sauce.
• Toss the pasta gently. The roasted veggies will be fairly soft and fragile, so I recommend just giving them a brief and gentle toss to mix with the pasta so that they don’t fall apart.
• Season to taste. Don’t forget to season the pasta water, and give the finished pasta a final taste test before serving to see if it needs any extra salt, pepper, balsamic or fresh basil.

Recipe Variations

Here are a few more variations that you are welcome to try with this vegetable pasta:

• Add a protein. Add a cooked protein of your choice, such as Italian sausage, chicken, steak, shrimp, salmon or scallops.
• Add nuts. Add toasted pine nuts or chopped walnuts.
• Add different herbs. Add more fresh herbs to the sauce, such as chopped fresh rosemary, thyme or sage.
• Use different veggies or greens. Add different veggies to roast, such as asparagus, bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, mushrooms, or yellow squash.
• Make it gluten-free and/or vegan. Use your favorite gf pasta to make this recipe gluten-free. Use olive oil (in place of butter) and omit the Parmesan (or use dairy-free Parmesan or a sprinkling of nutritional yeast) to make this recipe vegan.

Favorite Vegetarian Pasta Recipes

Looking for more yummy veggie-forward pasta recipes to try? Here are a few of our favorites:

• Lemony Broccoli Pesto Pasta
• Lentil Bolognese
• Creamy Garlic Mushroom Orzo
• Bruschetta Pasta
• One-Pot Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

Roasted Vegetable Pasta

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.8 from 12 reviews

• Author: Ali

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Ingredients

Roasted Vegetables:

• 2 medium zucchini (1 pound), cut into half moons
• 1 small eggplant (1 pound), diced into 1-inch cubes
• 1 small red onion, thickly sliced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• fine sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
• 1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes

Garlic Balsamic Pasta:

• 1 pound pasta (I used mezze rigatoni)
• 4 tablespoons salted butter
• 5 large garlic cloves, pressed or minced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 ounce freshly-grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
• 1/3 cup finely-chopped fresh basil, plus extra for serving

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Instructions

1. Prep the oven, baking sheet and pasta water. Heat the oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Bring a large stockpot of generously-salted pasta water to boil.
2. Roast the vegetables. Combine the zucchini, eggplant and red onion in a large mixing bowl and drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Toss to combine, then arrange the vegetables in an even layer on the prepared baking sheet. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, toss the cherry tomatoes in the mixing bowl with the remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, gently scoot the veggies over slightly to make room for the tomatoes, then add the cherry tomatoes to the sheet. Roast for 15 more minutes.
3. Cook the pasta. Once you have returned the baking sheet to the oven with the cherry tomatoes, add the pasta to the water and cook until *just* al dente. Meanwhile…
4. Make the garlic brown butter balsamic sauce. Add the butter to a large nonstick sauté pan and heat over medium-high heat until it is completely melted and barely begins to foam. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes and sauté for 1 minute, stirring, while the butter continues to brown. Turn off the heat, add the balsamic vinegar, and stir to combine. Around this point, the pasta should be ready to go. Use a spider strainer to transfer the pasta directly to the butter sauce and toss until combined. Add the Parmesan and continue tossing, adding in a small scoop of the starchy pasta water if needed, until the cheese has melted and formed a glossy coating for the pasta.
5. Combine. Add all of the roasted veggies and basil to the pasta (you can either do this in the sauté pan, or pour out the pasta water and use the stockpot) and toss very gently until combined.
6. Serve. Serve immediately, garnished with extra basil, grated Parmesan and a few twists of black pepper.

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A good Caesar salad will forever and always be one of my favorite foods. But I’m also just as happy this time of year to whip up a delicious batch of its carb-y cousin, a chicken Caesar pasta salad. ♡

It’s basically everything we all love about a good chicken Caesar — perfectly-seasoned chicken, crisp Romaine leaves, a bold and tangy Caesar dressing and a generous shower of freshly-grated Parmesan — tossed with chilled and chewy al dente pasta. Then in lieu of traditional croutons, I like to whip up a quick batch of crunchy, salty, garlicky breadcrumbs to sprinkle on top. It’s a classic pasta salad recipe that’s always so satisfying and comes together easily too!

Of course, if chicken isn’t your thing, feel free to sub any other protein in here that you prefer (shrimp, salmon, bacon, Italian sausage, or even roasted chickpeas would be great options). And if you happen to have any roasted veggies on hand, they would always be welcome here too. I do just have to say that I’m partial to my favorite homemade Caesar dressing, but totally get it if you’d like to save some time and use a bottle of store-bought (in which case, Ken’s or Marzetti are two brands I always recommend).

However you make it, I promise that this classic Caesar pasta salad recipe is always a winner!

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Fresh basil is back in season and I vote we celebrate with this lemon basil butter pasta! ♡

Our family fell in love with Ali Slagle’s viral basil-butter pasta last fall, which is a deliciously basil-forward, nut-free, and buttery alternative to traditional basil pesto pasta. She had the brilliant idea to blitz blanched basil with butter in a food processor (which you should definitely double to have leftovers for later!), which is then melted into a batch of hot pasta for a quick and easy 3-ingredient meal. The creamy, salty, melted butter serves as the perfect saucy vehicle for the fragrant peppery flavor of fresh basil, and perfectly coats each strand of pasta. And while it’s easy to make the basil butter in the amount of time it takes to cook the pasta, you can also prep the basil butter in advance if you’d like to make dinnertime an absolute breeze. Such a win!

That said, while Ali’s version keeps things simple with just basil, butter and pasta, we’ve come to love adding in a generous dose of lemon, black pepper and Parmesan to this pasta as well (a la this recipe), which adds a balance of bright, spicy, umami flavors to the basil butter that really makes this dish sing. And for any of you who want to go the extra mile and make a batch of brown butter to use here (totally optional, but WOW), I can vouch that the extra toasty, nutty flavor notes absolutely take this simple dish over the top.

Bottom line, I’m now convinced that this melting-basil-butter-into-hot-pasta method here is one that any herb-lover should add to their repertoire. So grab a big bunch of basil and let’s make some pasta!

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