Hi, all! Genevieve here, filling in for Emily Weinstein and realizing that almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about how pasta was all I wanted for dinner. Maybe it’s the season — a little chill in the air, a lot of too much going on — that calls for tender noodles.
Also, it’s only Tuesday, but are you tired? I am, and pasta is the easiest one-dish dinner for anyone feeling weary. If you start boiling a pot of water right after you walk in the door, you can eat in half an hour or less. Work vegetables and proteins into the dish, and you really don’t need anything else to complete the meal, whether it’s cheesy macaroni or soupy soba.
But the real beauty of pasta is that it tastes so special, especially when it’s swirled with fall produce. There’s a real restaurant feel to that kind of dish, but it comes at a fraction of the cost when made at home. And the very thrill of that is enough to give me a soft second wind to pull noodles out of the pantry and start cooking.
1. Pasta With Butternut Squash, Kale and Brown Butter
I love this vegetarian pasta because the butter doesn’t brown by itself: Ali Slagle lets it sputter with seared squash so both end up extra nutty and rich, and then accentuates that goodness with warm spices.
2. Longevity Noodles With Chicken, Ginger and Mushrooms
Are noodles pasta? Do you call pasta noodles? Does it actually matter if they both deliver a soul-satisfying chew? This stir-fry, adapted by Julia Moskin from the brilliant cookbook author Grace Young, starts with fresh noodles, but I’ve used dried thin spaghetti in a pinch and it still tastes amazing.
4. Shrimp Bolognese
I save three-hour simmers of meaty Bolognese for the weekends and rely on Yotam Ottolenghi’s genius quick take with shrimp on weekdays. Since fennel is in season, I use the whole bulb (he calls for half) and keep the fronds for sprinkling over the finished dish.
