There are few foods more versatile than pasta; cooked with the right ingredients and flavours, it can be quick and tasty, comforting and indulgent or light and fresh.
So, whether you are a fan of classic pasta flavours or fancy something more adventurous, we have 10 recipes for you to enjoy chosen by Food Editor, Marie-Claire Digby, from chefs Paul Flynn, Yotam Ottolenghi, Domini Kemp, Nigel Slater, Lilly Higgins, Vanessa Greenwood and Carmel Somers.
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[ 1 Paul Flynn’s roast chicken rigatoni with Béarnaise butterOpens in new window ]
This dish will take you on holiday to Italy ... and France. Flynn combines his love of food from these two countries, with delicious results.
Béarnaise sauce is one of the great French sauces. Here, you condense its flavours into a butter and add it to pasta and roast chicken. Heaven.
[ 2 Paul Flynn’s spaghetti with yellow pepper sauceOpens in new window ]
Fancy showing off your cooking skills? If so, this recipe is for you. Paul Flynn cooks this when he is cooking for another chef.
“Sometimes just getting good ingredients and treating them with respect is enough.” Serve this mellow spaghetti with charcuterie and you’re on to a winner.
[ 3 Paul Flynn’s rigatoni with smokey pea cream and white puddingOpens in new window ]
In this dish the rigatoni is enveloped in a pea cream that has the faint smoke of a rasher. Crisp pieces of white pudding adorn it like a crown.
[ 4 Lilly Higgins’s butternut squash and mushroom lasagneOpens in new window ]
This dish is a real autumn warmer: sweet squash sits with garlic mushrooms, fried sage, ricotta and nutmeg.
[ 5 Nigel Slater’s peas, pappardelle, Parmesan Opens in new window ]
This triple-P plate of perfection – peas, pappardelle and Parmesan – should hit the spot, and you only need five ingredients to pull it off.
[ 6 Yotam Ottolenghi’s one-pan pasta with harissa BologneseOpens in new window ]
You simply can’t go wrong with this one-pan pasta. It will convert you to cooking every dinner in a roasting tin
[ 7 Vanessa Greenwood’s Linguine with garlic and hazelnut crumbleOpens in new window ]
This soothing, garlicy pasta dish is perfect for those with a hectic schedule. Greenwood recommends investing in a good extra virgin olive oil and a block of aged Parmigiano-Reggiano (or even Cáis na Tíre, an Irish sheep’s cheese with a subtle sweetness and the same crystalline crunch) to enjoy this to the utmost.
[ 8 Domini Kemp’s orecchietti with squash, radicchio, walnuts and taleggioOpens in new window ]
This dish oozes rich cheesiness, though the roasted squash, radicchio and walnuts temper it, as well as adding texture and depth to the béchamel-cloaked pasta – tiny orechietti, or small ears in Italian.
This is the kind of dish to tuck in to after a long walk or swim and before plonking yourself on the couch with a glass of white wine.
[ 9 Domini Kemp’s roast cauliflower spaghettiOpens in new window ]
Little florets of cauliflower seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg or chilli and perfectly roasted for a little char and crunch are the key to this Domini Kemp recipe. Toss them together with butter sauce and spaghetti, then top with the hazelnuts and some grated cheese. Voila.
[ 10 Carmel Somers’s pasta with courgettes, lemon, pine nuts and herbsOpens in new window ]
The perfect lazy dish when you don’t want to do to much work but still want a tasty meal.
Tossing the courgettes and pasta with the cheese, lemon and pine nut sauce make a zingy yet effortless dinner.
