19 of Our Favorite Pasta Recipes

When in doubt, put an egg on it.

Silky with egg and melted cheese, freshened with parsley, and spiked with black pepper, spaghetti carbonara brings intense flavors into balance. We also love this dish for its short cooking time.

Chiles add spark to this sauce, with toasted bread crumbs sprinkled in for pleasing crunch.

Homemade meatballs add rich flavor to a simple pasta night. Serve meatballs and spaghetti with a crisp green salad.

These little butternut squash gnocchi are ever so slightly sweet. Dress the dumplings with melted butter and parmesan cheese to add a rich flavor.

Stuff homemade potato gnocchi with creamy gouda cheese for a to-die-for appetizer that’s worth every minute it takes to prepare.

Serve tender sweet potatoes with a mixture of spinach and mushrooms, flavored with broth and Parmesan cheese, for a meatless holiday main dish.

Despite being in Phoenix and quite a distance from an ocean, chef Cullen Campbell serves impeccable seafood at Crudo restaurant. These plump gnocchi are cooked in gently simmering water, but the mixture can also be pan-fried to create crabcakes.

Semolina–coarsely ground durum wheat–gives Gemma Sciabica’s gnocchi a chewy texture. You can buy semolina in well-stocked supermarkets and groceries that sell specialty flours.

Layers of ragù and creamy, nutmeg-scented béchamel are a subtle departure from the familiar cheese-laden lasagna favored by many Americans; our version is actually closer to authentic Italian lasagna. However, we streamlined the ragù by using sweet Italian sausage instead of the traditional beef, pork, and/or veal blend.

This recipe for lasagna, always a favorite Italian dish, can be made ahead. Assemble the lasagna (through step 4) up to 1 day in advance, cover, and chill. To save time, prepare the béchamel sauce while the meat simmers.

For this intensely mushroomy lasagna, brawny portabellas and shiitakes cook down until their flavors are concentrated. Then they’re layered with a creamy, velvety sauce and sheets of no-boil pasta, which are thinner than regular dried pasta.

If you love heat, go for the full amount of chile flakes in this take on pasta alle vongole from Sunset reader Gail Lively, of Tucson. We suggest serving warm, crusty bread on the side to sop up the juices.

This pasta recipe is great for all the mushroom fans out there. This recipe is super easy to make and will satisfy the hungriest of people.

This artichoke and lemon pasta recipe balances itself out by adding creaminess to the acidic lemon flavors.

The cherries’ bursts of sweet juice offset the richness of the pasta.

This pretty soup takes on an added delicacy if you use ravioli made with thinly rolled pasta, but it’s good with the sturdier type too.

Won ton wrappers make a great substitute for homemade pasta, so you can whip up these tasty ravioli on a weeknight. They’re made with flat-leaf parsley, also called Italian parsley, which tastes much more robust than the curly variety. Parsley is a great source of vitamins A, C, and K, so use it generously, as this recipe does.

If you think of ravioli as a stick-to-your-ribs sort of dish, this summertime version will be a revelation–served in a light broth with fresh seasonal vegetables.