35 Pasta Recipes with Pizzazz

With its rich meaty sauce and creamy cheese layers, this lasagna is always a favorite main dish.

Classic Lasagna

A Parmesan cream sauce tops pasta made with your choice of fresh herbs and veggies. 

Fresh Herb Pasta Primavera

Layer creamy white and tomato-mushroom sauces with noodles to create this meatless dish. You can serve it with a salad as a main course or spoon out smaller portions as a side dish. "This was a real treat," writes one of our website reviewers. "The cream gives this dish a really rich boost."

French Spaghetti

This old family recipe comes from Kansas City, Missouri, reader Mary Rowell. She learned it from her mother, who learned it from her Italian mother-in-law. Starch from a potato helps thicken the sauce.

Blue-Ribbon Italian Sauce

Tangy balsamic vinegar, sweet honey and the bite of red pepper flakes blend as they season this beef stir-fry. We liked the crunch of the Chinese cabbage called bok choy. Dried vermicelli pasta nests or angel-hair pasta can be used as the noodle base.

Noodles with Honey-Balsamic Beef

Fresh mint and sweet peas shine in this bright, versatile pesto. We love it as a dip, sandwich spread and pasta sauce (thinned with a little water), but we suspect that you’ll find even more ways to use it for a burst of early-summer flavor.

Pea and Mint Pesto

One of the winners in a Midwest Living potluck recipe contest, this recipe from a North Canton, Ohio, reader combines pizza toppings with macaroni, sprinkled on top with Parmesan and pepperoni.

Pizza in a Bowl

Dry sherry flavors the broth, and crushed red pepper adds a tiny bite to this pasta dish from Bartolino's, a popular Italian restaurant in the Hill area of St. Louis, Missouri.

Linguini with Shrimp and Pine Nuts

Purchased pesto and roast chicken help get this quick and easy main dish on the table in just 20 minutes. Fresh broccoli cooks with the pasta and lends straight-from-the-garden flavor.

Pesto Penne with Deli-Roasted Chicken

Some call this dish (pronounced pah-STEET-see-oh) the Greek lasagna. Our version was inspired by the pastitsio served at a popular Detroit-area Greek restaurant. We use elbow macaroni and kasseri cheese (similar to provolone in flavor, but milder with a slight buttery taste). Just like lasagna, this dish is easier to serve if it stands about 10 minutes after baking.

Greek Pastitsio

Sweet peppers, garlic and tomato add color and flavor to this quick-and-easy pasta dish. If you like, add cooked chicken strips or shrimp.

Second-Helping Pasta

Choose from the variety of mushrooms at your supermarket when you make this dish from Spiaggia in Chicago. Or you can buy cheese ravioli to use with this recipe's rich mushroom sauce.

Pumpkin-Filled Ravioli

Extra-firm tofu provides protein in this meatless main dish. Whole-grain pasta adds flavor and nutrition.

Cheesy Multigrain Spaghetti Casserole

A Waukegan, Illinois, reader contributed this homespun ground beef-and-noodle hotdish recipe. She said it is one of her favorites to take to church suppers. Make-ahead directions are included at the end of the recipe.

Eight-Layer Casserole

Lots of veggies, grilled chicken, Asian buckwheat noodles and a peanut dressing create this choice chilled main-dish salad. The recipe is from M's Pub in Omaha. You can assemble it 2 to 4 hours before serving.

Thai Chicken Salad

The popular Thai herb lemongrass seasons this stir-fry we created with a lemony finish. You can substitute a variety of noodles in this main dish.

Lemongrass Chicken over Noodles