10 Delicious Ways to Dress Up Your Pasta (2024)

If you feel like you’re getting bored with pasta, then you’re at the right place. Let us inspire you with 10 delicious ways to dress up your next pasta dish!

The Plain Jane

Sometimes less is more. With just a handful of pantry ingredients, you can make a carb-lovers dream of a pasta. Simply cook chopped garlic cloves in a bit of warm olive oil (not hot!), and add cooked spaghetti (reserve some of the cooking water to add later if necessary). Stir to combine and finish off with a handful of fresh chopped parsley, and grated parmesan cheese. Easy peasy and so delicious!

White Wine, Mushroom and Cream

For this decadent dish, get some white wine ready (some for the dish, some for the glass!). In a saucepan, sauté sliced mushrooms, minced garlic cloves, butter, and some extra-virgin olive oil. Make sure to stir every now and then to prevent the ingredients from burning. Then, add some white wine of your choice to the mix and reduce the sauce. Add cream and heat the mixture gently until it has thickened, still making sure to stir it regularly. Finally, add this mix to your choice of tagliatelle or pappardelle, and sprinkle over freshly grated Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Month-end pasta

With a can of tuna, you can make a gourmet pasta. Warm a few garlic slices and cherry tomatoes in a bit of olive oil, and stir until the tomatoes burst. Add canned tuna (packed in oil) and stir to break up the tuna chunks. Add cooked penne pasta, chopped olives, and a handful of basil leaves. So flavorful!

Quick Chicken Alfredo

What’s not to love about a good chicken pasta? For this dish, dice up some white meat of rotisserie chicken. In saucepan, melt some butter, then add cream cheese and garlic powder, and whisk to get a smooth consistency. Slowly add about 2 cups of milk while constantly stirring the mix. Stir in some grated Parmesan and black pepper, and remove from the heat. When the sauce has thickened, add the diced chicken and some vermicelli or tagliatelle pasta, and you have just made a super quick chicken alfredo!

Tomato

Tomato and pasta go together like best friends, and they make a delicious pair! For this pasta, you don’t even need a lot of time at the stove. Simply mix together six fresh tomatoes (diced), crushed garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon zest. Add tagliatelle pasta and dinner is served!

Shrimp Scampi

In a skillet, cook approximately a pound of peeled and deveined shrimp, then remove them for later use. In the same skillet, add minced garlic cloves, red-pepper flakes, and white wine, together with some salt and pepper. Cook the mix for a little while, then add butter and the shrimp pieces to heat up. This mix goes well with angel hair pasta. Sprinkle a little bit of chopped parsley over the top.

Bacon and Scallions

You can almost never go wrong by adding bacon to a dish. Pasta dishes are no exception. For this one, fry a couple of bacon slices in a skillet until crispy. When finished, discard the left-over fat, and add some butter and extra-virgin olive oil to the pan. Then, fry up some sliced scallions. Add shell or penne pasta and finish off with a good deal of shredded Parmesan, salt, and pepper.

Lemony Scallop

Use this recipe for this super simple pasta dish. First, in a hot pan fry some scallops in extra-virgin olive oil. Next, add this mixture to your hot (and drained) pasta, squeeze lemon juice over the mixture, and finally season with a good deal of white pepper and mix well. If you want to, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese and/or chopped flat-leaf parsley over the top to give it little something extra.

Three-Cheese

Cheese adds something extra to pretty much any dish, from burger to pizzas and pastas. And, the more the better, both in terms of amount and diversity. For this pasta add about a cup of Emmentaler, your choice of Gruyere or Edam, and mozzarella or fontina to hot tortellini or elbow pasta. Then add good amount of butter, mix well, and season with some black pepper. Add some leftover pasta water if the mix is too sticky.

Puttanesca

This Mediterranean type pasta dish goes well with vermicelli, and is one of the easiest to make. In a big enough pan, for about 10 minutes simply cook sliced garlic cloves, diced tomatoes, capers, chopped anchovies, sliced green olives, red-pepper flakes, and a little bit of flat-leaf parsley. Viola! Add this mix to the vermicelli and you have a Puttanesca pasta!