Pasta Recipes

spaghetti crab sauce pasta recipe — Photo by Holly A. Heyser

I make a lot of pasta, in all shapes, with all sorts of flours and fillings. They are scattered all over this site, making them hard to browse through, so I compiled them all here. They range from the simple to the complex, and use everything from unusual flours such as barley or chestnut, to added ingredients within the pasta itself, like the Calabrian hot pepper pasta recipe.

There are pasta recipes here both for making pasta itself at home as well as recipes for various pasta sauces, which you can use with any sort of noodle.

The Ultimate Pasta Book Library

If you are getting into making pasta at home, I highly recommend these books.

Arugula Pesto with Pasta

Super easy-to-make gnocchi (they’re made with a regular dough) served with homemade pesto.

Rabbit with Morels and Gnocchi

Gnocchi made with spinach, nettles or another green, served with morels and slow-cooked rabbit.

Little semolina dumplings from Sardinia, served with fresh chickpeas and tomato jam.

Pumpkin or Squash Spaetzle

German style dumplings made with winter squash in the dough.

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Acorn Spätzle

Spaetzle made with acorn flour, great with venison or duck

The Mechanics of Eating Acorns

How to use acorn flour to make an earthy pasta dough, great for cavatelli.

Cattail Pollen Pasta

Cattail pollen is like an American turmeric or saffron: It is intensely yellow. Although no big in the flavor department, it is very nutritious.

Nettle Pasta

This is a traditional Northern Italian pasta called strettine, made with stinging nettles in the dough.

Pork Blood Pasta

Another traditional pasta from Northern Italy, this is called blutnudeln, pasta moistened with pig’s blood. It’s not as scary as it sounds.

Arrowhead or Wapato Pasta

Also called arrowhead or sagittaria, this is an aquatic tuber that can be dried and made into flour. It makes a great pasta dough.

Kelp Pasta with Rockfish

Pasta made with dried, powdered kelp. It has a pretty green color and a lightly briny flavor that goes well with seafood.

Ramp Pasta with Morels

Wild onions (or scallions) pureed and added to the pasta dough, served with a morel mushroom ragout.

Wild Mushroom Ragu

All kinds of mushrooms stewed into a deep pasta sauce and served with whole-grain or acorn pasta cavatelli.

Spaghetti with Crab Sauce

Spaghetti with a homemade crab sauce. It’s as good as it looks and works great with any sort of crab.

Classic Duck Ragu

A hearty pasta sauce loaded with duck flavor. This one is an Italian classic.

This is a riff off the Sicilian dish pasta con le sarde, only I use anchovies. It’s a pretty dish/

Tortellini in Brodo

This is the ultimate filled pasta in Italy, a classic of Emilia-Romagna. You owe it to yourself to make this the next time you roast a chicken, turkey or pheasant.

Closeup of a bowl of cappelletti pasta en brodo

Cappelletti Pasta in Broth

Cappelletti are like tortellini, but these are almost always served in broth. In this case, wild duck broth.

Mushroom Tortellini

Little packets of love, filled with a mix of morels (or any other mushroom) and ricotta cheese, served with more mushrooms, peas and green onions.

Nettle Ravioli

Raviolis filled with nettle and mascarpone cheese, wrapped in pasta dough made with nettles.

Mushroom Ravioli

Another “duo,” this one is a porcini filling with porcini pasta dough. A major mushroom hit with this pasta.

Carrot Consomme with Gnocchi

Soft, pillowy gnocchi made with ricotta and cow parsnip leaves (you can use any green herb), served with an elegant-yet-easy carrot broth.

Venison Lasagna

Based off my mother’s lasagna recipe, this one’s a keeper.

Pigeon or Dove Tortellini

Large filled pasta stuffed with ground pigeon, dove or squab meat.

Duck Liver Ravioli

Duck liver, regular or foie gras, stuffed inside a duck egg pasta and served in a consomme, or with truffle butter. Decadence.

Another variation on the wild herbs with cheese filling so common in Italy. This one uses borage, which has a light cucumber taste.

Ricotta Gnudi

Gnudi are like ravioli fillings with no pasta. They’re tricky to make, but here’s how. The ramps and porcini are my sauce, but the gnudi are good just with butter and sage.

Italian Ricotta Spinach Dumplings

A Northern Italian dumpling of bread and green things, spinach or wild greens. Easy to make, tasty — and thrifty. Serve with fresh garlic and good butter.

Pelmeni and the Eating of Bears

Sort of like a Russian tortellini, only larger. These are filled with bear, but any meat would work here.

Wild Mushroom Pierogi

Traditional Polish dumplings filled with wild mushrooms (or any other kind of mushroom), and served with caramelized onions, dill and sour cream.