Simple Pasta
for Weeknights

1.1 About This Book

Good pasta doesn't need to be complicated. The recipes in this little book are built on a handful of ingredients, things most kitchens already have. The secret to all of them is the same: don't rush, use good olive oil, and always save a mug of pasta water before you drain it. That starchy water is what ties a sauce together.

These are the kinds of dishes Italians make on a Tuesday night. Simple, honest, and genuinely satisfying.

Nothing here needs a special trip to the shops. If you keep dried pasta, tinned tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and a lump of hard cheese in the house, you can cook most of this book tonight.

Garlic & Oil Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 20 minutes

One of the most satisfying things you can make with almost nothing in the kitchen. The magic is in the simplicity: good olive oil, golden garlic, a little heat from chilli flakes, and starchy pasta water to bring it all together.

2.1 Ingredients

2.2 Method

1. Cook the spaghetti in well-salted boiling water until al dente. Save a mug of pasta water before draining; this is important.
2. While the pasta cooks, gently warm the olive oil in a wide pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and fry slowly until golden and fragrant. Do not let it go brown; that will make it bitter.
3. Add the chilli flakes and stir briefly.
4. Add the drained spaghetti directly to the pan. Pour in a few splashes of the pasta water and toss everything together vigorously. The water emulsifies with the oil to form a light, glossy sauce.
5. Serve immediately, scattered with parsley if you have it.

Cheese & Pepper Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 20 minutes

Three ingredients. No cream, no butter. Just pasta, cheese, and black pepper, transformed into something silky and extraordinary through technique alone. It looks simple, but the method matters.

3.1 Ingredients

3.2 Method

1. Cook the pasta in well-salted boiling water. Save a large mug of pasta water before draining.
2. Toast the black pepper in a dry pan over medium heat for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add a splash of pasta water to the pan.
3. Mix the grated cheeses together in a bowl. Add a few tablespoons of pasta water and mix into a thick, smooth paste.
4. Drain the pasta and add to the pan. Take the pan off the heat; this step is critical. Add the cheese paste and toss rapidly, adding small splashes of pasta water as needed.
5. Keep tossing until you have a smooth, glossy sauce clinging to every strand. Serve with more black pepper on top.

Egg & Cheese Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 25 minutes

A real carbonara has no cream; the sauce is made entirely from eggs and cheese (traditionally with crisp guanciale, which this simpler meat-free version leaves out). The residual heat of the pasta does the cooking. It's richer and more luxurious than anything you'd make with a jar of sauce, and takes about the same amount of time.

4.1 Ingredients

4.2 Method

1. Cook the spaghetti in well-salted boiling water until al dente. Save a mug of pasta water before draining.
2. While the pasta cooks, whisk the eggs together with the grated cheese and a very generous amount of black pepper.
3. Drain the pasta and tip it back into the pan. Let the pan sit off the heat for one minute; this is important. Too hot and the eggs will scramble.
4. Pour the egg and cheese mixture over the pasta and toss quickly. Add splashes of pasta water little by little, tossing all the time, until you have a glossy, creamy sauce coating every strand.
5. Serve immediately with more cheese and black pepper on top.

Mushroom, Garlic & Cream Cheese Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 25 minutes

This is the one to make when you want something genuinely comforting. Golden mushrooms, sweet onion, fragrant garlic, and a cream cheese sauce that comes together in minutes. No cream is needed; the Philadelphia does the job beautifully.

5.1 Ingredients

5.2 Method

1. Cook the spaghetti in well-salted boiling water until al dente. Save a mug of pasta water before draining.
2. Warm a good glug of olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the onion and fry until soft and starting to turn sweet, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, then add the mushrooms. Cook until they release their water and that water evaporates off; you want them to go golden, not steam. Don't rush this step; it takes about 8–10 minutes and makes a big difference to the flavour.
4. Season generously with salt, pepper, and your dried herbs. Add the peas if using and stir through until heated.
5. Reduce the heat. Stir in the cream cheese and a splash of milk to loosen it into a sauce. Add a splash of pasta water to help it come together smoothly.
6. Toss the cooked spaghetti through the sauce, adding more pasta water as needed until everything is coated and glossy. Serve with grated cheese on top.

Simple Tomato Sauce · Serves 2 · Ready in 30 minutes

The sauce everything else is built on. A tin of tomatoes, some garlic and a bit of patience turn into something far better than any jar. The only real technique is letting it cook long enough to lose its raw, tinny edge.

6.1 Ingredients

6.2 Method

1. Warm the olive oil in a wide pan over medium-low heat and cook the garlic gently until fragrant and just turning golden.
2. Tip in the tomatoes, add a pinch of sugar, season with salt and pepper, and stir in the dried oregano if using.
3. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring now and then. The sauce is ready when it has darkened, thickened, and the oil starts to separate at the edges. This is the whole recipe; do not cut it short.
4. Meanwhile cook the pasta in well-salted water until al dente. Save a mug of pasta water before draining.
5. Toss the pasta through the sauce with a splash of pasta water. Tear over fresh basil if you have it and serve with grated cheese.

Tomato & Cream Cheese Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 25 minutes

All the comfort of a creamy sauce with nothing more exotic than a tub of cream cheese. It takes the sharp edge off tinned tomatoes and turns them a lovely dusty pink.

7.1 Ingredients

7.2 Method

1. Soften the onion in the olive oil over medium heat until sweet and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
2. Add the tomatoes and oregano, season, and simmer for 15 minutes until thickened.
3. Cook the pasta in well-salted water until al dente, saving a mug of pasta water.
4. Turn the heat down low and stir the cream cheese into the sauce until it melts and turns everything pink and glossy.
5. Toss the pasta through, loosening with pasta water until it coats properly.

Store-cupboard Tuna Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 20 minutes

Almost entirely from tins, and genuinely good rather than merely convenient. This is the one to remember on the night nobody has been to the shops.

8.1 Ingredients

8.2 Method

1. Warm the oil and cook the garlic gently until fragrant, then add the chilli flakes.
2. Add the tomatoes, season well, and simmer for 12 minutes until thickened.
3. Cook the pasta in well-salted water until al dente, saving a mug of pasta water.
4. Flake the drained tuna into the sauce and stir through gently over low heat for a minute, just to warm it.
5. Toss with the pasta and a splash of pasta water, then finish with parsley.

Pesto Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 15 minutes

The fastest thing in this book, and a useful lesson: pesto should never be cooked. Treat it as a dressing you stir in at the end and it stays fresh, green and fragrant.

9.1 Ingredients

9.2 Method

1. Cook the pasta in well-salted water until al dente, dropping the frozen peas in for the last 3 minutes.
2. Save a mug of pasta water, then drain the pasta and peas together.
3. Return them to the pan off the heat. Add the pesto and a good splash of pasta water.
4. Toss until everything is coated and loose. Add more pasta water if it looks claggy.
5. Serve with grated cheese, black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Pasta in Bianco · Serves 2 · Ready in 15 minutes

What Italian children are fed when they are under the weather, and what adults quietly make when they cannot face cooking. Three ingredients, no chopping, and better than it has any right to be.

10.1 Ingredients

10.2 Method

1. Cook the pasta in well-salted boiling water until al dente. Save a mug of pasta water before draining.
2. Return the drained pasta to the warm pan, off the heat.
3. Add the cubed butter and toss until it melts and coats everything.
4. Add the cheese and a splash of pasta water, tossing continuously until it turns into a smooth, glossy sauce rather than sitting in strings.
5. Season with plenty of black pepper and serve at once.

Lemon Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 15 minutes

Sharp, fresh and ready in the time it takes the pasta to cook. A good answer to heavy tomato and cream sauces when you want something lighter.

11.1 Ingredients

11.2 Method

1. Zest the lemon before you cut it, then juice it. Put the zest, juice, olive oil and grated cheese in a bowl and mix to a loose paste.
2. Cook the pasta in well-salted water until al dente. Save a mug of pasta water before draining.
3. Return the pasta to the pan off the heat and pour over the lemon mixture.
4. Toss hard, adding pasta water a splash at a time, until it turns glossy and coats the strands.
5. Finish with a great deal of black pepper and more cheese.

Bacon & Pea Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 20 minutes

Salty bacon, sweet peas and a cream cheese sauce that comes together in the pan while the pasta cooks. Reliably the most popular thing in this book with children.

12.1 Ingredients

12.2 Method

1. Fry the bacon in the olive oil over medium heat until the fat has rendered and the edges are crisp. Add the onion now if using and soften it in the bacon fat.
2. Cook the pasta in well-salted water until al dente, adding the frozen peas for the last 3 minutes. Save a mug of pasta water.
3. Drain the pasta and peas and tip them into the bacon pan.
4. Lower the heat, add the cream cheese and a good splash of pasta water, and toss until it melts into a sauce.
5. Season with black pepper. The bacon usually brings enough salt, so taste before adding more.

Quick Sausage Ragù · Serves 2 · Ready in 30 minutes

A ragù that tastes like it has been going all afternoon but is done in half an hour. Sausages are just seasoned mince in a convenient wrapper, and they do most of the work for you.

13.1 Ingredients

13.2 Method

1. Split the sausage skins and squeeze the meat straight into a hot pan with the olive oil, discarding the skins.
2. Break the meat up with a wooden spoon into rough lumps and fry until deeply browned. Let it sit and colour rather than stirring constantly; this browning is where the flavour comes from.
3. Add the onion and cook until soft, then the garlic and herbs for a minute more.
4. Add the tomatoes, season, and simmer for 15–20 minutes until thick.
5. Cook the pasta until al dente, then toss it through the sauce with a splash of pasta water.

Courgette Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 20 minutes

Courgettes have a reputation for being watery and dull, which is entirely a cooking problem. Fried hard in decent oil until they collapse and caramelise, they turn sweet and nutty.

14.1 Ingredients

14.2 Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over medium-high heat and add the courgette slices in as close to a single layer as you can manage.
2. Fry for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden at the edges and beginning to collapse. Season well.
3. Add the garlic and chilli flakes and cook for one more minute.
4. Cook the pasta in well-salted water until al dente, saving a mug of pasta water.
5. Toss the pasta through the courgettes with a splash of pasta water, crushing some of the courgette against the pan so it melts into a rough sauce. Serve with cheese.

Creamy Spinach Pasta · Serves 2 · Ready in 20 minutes

A green, savoury sauce from a bag of frozen spinach and a tub of cream cheese. Nutmeg is what makes it taste deliberate rather than thrown together.

15.1 Ingredients

15.2 Method

1. Defrost the spinach in a pan over low heat, or in the microwave. Then squeeze it out firmly over the sink; this matters more than anything else here.
2. Warm the olive oil and cook the garlic gently for a minute without colouring it.
3. Add the squeezed spinach, the nutmeg, and plenty of salt and pepper, and stir for a minute.
4. Cook the pasta in well-salted water until al dente, saving a mug of pasta water.
5. Stir the cream cheese and a splash of milk into the spinach over low heat, then toss the pasta through with pasta water until glossy. Serve with grated cheese.

16.1 Save Your Pasta Water

Before you drain your pasta, save a whole mug of the cooking water. You won't use all of it, but it's always there when you need it. The starch dissolved in the water is what transforms a few simple ingredients into a proper sauce.

16.2 Salt Your Water Properly

Pasta water should taste pleasantly salty, like a well-seasoned soup. Use roughly 10g of salt (about 2 teaspoons) per litre of water; that is more than a pinch, and it is not too much. Under-salted pasta tastes flat no matter how good your sauce is.

16.3 Al Dente Matters

Pasta should have a little bite to it when you drain it; it will continue cooking slightly in the sauce. Follow the packet instructions but taste a minute or two early. Spaghetti typically takes 10–12 minutes.

16.4 Off the Heat for Egg Sauces

For carbonara and any egg-based sauce, always take the pan off the heat before adding the eggs. The residual warmth of the pasta is enough to cook them into a silky sauce. A pan still on the heat will scramble them.

16.5 Give Tinned Tomatoes Time

Straight from the tin, tomatoes taste sharp and faintly metallic. They need fifteen to twenty minutes of gentle simmering to lose that and turn sweet. You can see it happen: the colour deepens and the oil begins to separate at the edges.

16.6 Match the Shape to the Sauce

Thin sauces made of oil and pasta water suit long strands like spaghetti and linguine. Chunky sauces with meat or vegetables need short shapes with hollows and ridges, such as penne, rigatoni or fusilli, to catch them. It is not fussiness; it changes every mouthful.