Quick sauces for dressing pasta

Pasta is a typical Italian preparation, but it is known and appreciated all over the world. Here in Italy, it is customary to eat pasta at least once a day and it is prepared in a thousand ways and for all tastes.

I want to make a roundup of quick sauces to prepare a pasta dish in just a few minutes, the time it takes to boil water and cook the pasta. All pasta shapes are fine, although the most popular are spaghetti and penne. I will start with the one I prepared just last night:

Penne with sausage and cream

Ingredients for 4 people

• 400 grams of penne
• 3 pork sausages
• half a small red onion
• 500 grams chopped peeled tomatoes
• 1 200 g packet of cooking cream
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil to taste
• chopped parsley to taste

Preparation:

Finely chop the half red onion and fry it with a little olive oil. Add the sausages, skinned and cut into small pieces. When the sausages are golden brown, add the peeled tomatoes, salt and pepper and allow the sauce to reduce for a few minutes.

After about ten minutes add the cream and leave it on the heat just long enough to mix with the rest. A little chopped parsley and our sauce is ready.

In the meantime you have boiled water with a little salt in a pot. Throw in the pasta and when it is cooked, add it to the sauce. There is no need for any other additions such as grated cheese. As I said, it can be prepared in a few minutes and both young and old will surely enjoy it.

Spaghetti with tuna

This is also a very quick and easy recipe to prepare

Ingredients for 4 people

• grams 400 of not very large spaghetti
• grams 250 tuna in olive oil
• grams 500 chopped peeled tomatoes
• half a small red onion, finely chopped
• olive oil
• chopped parsley to taste
• salt and pepper.

Preparation:

While you are boiling water to cook the pasta, finely chop half a red onion and brown it in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Now add the drained tuna and cook for a few minutes. Add the peeled chopped tomatoes and allow the sauce to reduce for another 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and as soon as the sauce has thickened a little, put

As soon as the sauce has thickened a little, sprinkle a little chopped parsley on top and it is ready to season the cooked spaghetti.

The classic tomato sauce

This sauce is the most classic pasta sauce there is. It has all the flavour of the Mediterranean tradition. It is made with very few variations of ingredients throughout Italy and the world.

This is the basic recipe.

Ingredients needed:

• grams 500 of chopped tomato pulp
• grams 800 of tomato puree
• half onion
• a pinch of sugar
• 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• salt to taste
• a few leaves of fresh basil.

Preparation:

Finely chop the onion and brown it in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Stir often to avoid browning the onion too much. Now add the tomato pulp and tomato puree.

Add salt and also sugar, which will remove some of the sour taste of the tomato.

This preparation should cook for at least an hour to an hour and a half, so add a little water at a time when you see that it gets too dry. When cooked, chop some fresh basil leaves with your hands and add them to the sauce.

This type of sauce is suitable for all types of pasta. It is light and tasty and is most easily used in the summer months, as fresh ingredients are available.

Penne alla boscaiola

This sauce can be prepared in many different ways and with different ingredients. The main ingredient, however, is the mushroom. Any type of edible mushroom can be used, but porcini mushrooms are always a favourite. Some variants of this recipe also include cream among the ingredients. Instead, I propose a recipe that tries to leave the taste of the mushrooms intact.

Ingredients for 4 persons

• grams 400 of penne
• grams 350 of mushrooms
• grams 200 of sausage
• grams 300 chopped tomato pulp
• half onion, finely chopped
• enough olive oil
• salt pepper
• a few chopped parsley leaves.

Preparation:

Finely chop the onion and brown it in a few tablespoons of olive oil.

Add the sausage, chopped as finely as possible, and let it cook for a few minutes. Now add the mushrooms, which you have cleaned, washed and chopped, and cook for about ten minutes, stirring a couple of times. Now add the chopped tomato pulp, season with salt and pepper (not too much because the sausages are usually already tasty). When the sauce is set and ready, add the chopped parsley leaves, stir and immediately remove from the heat. In the meantime, cook the penne in plenty of hot salted water and here you have a dish with an autumnal flavour that everyone will love, especially mushroom lovers.

Pasta a Pizza

A very quick pasta to prepare that your children will surely love because it smells just like pizza.

Ingredients for 4 people

• grams 400 of penne
• grams 500 chopped peeled tomatoes
• grams 250 fior di latte mozzarella
• grams 40 of grated Parmesan cheese
• oregano to taste
• salt and pepper
• olive oil to taste

Preparation:

In an oven dish cook the chopped tomatoes with a few tablespoons of olive oil for about 5 minutes adding a sprinkling of chopped oregano, Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Prepare the mozzarellas by cutting them into small cubes.

In the meantime, cook the penne in plenty of salted water, which you remove from the heat a couple of minutes before they are cooked al dente.

Drain the pasta and place it in the oven dish with the tomato, now add the diced mozzarella and mix everything well. Sprinkle a sprinkling of grated Parmesan or Parmesan cheese on top,

Place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 5 minutes, just enough time for the mozzarella to melt. And here you have our first course, which is very reminiscent of the classic pizza.

Quick pasta sauces with vegetables.

Green bean and tomato sauce.

A summer dish, really tasty and vegetarian.

Ingredients for 4 people

• grams 800 of fresh ripe tomatoes
• grams 300 of fresh green beans
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• enough olive oil
• a few leaves of fresh basil.

Preparation:

Cook the green beans, (after washing them and cutting off the ends) in plenty of salted water for about twenty minutes. Drain them from the water and set them aside.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce. In a saucepan, brown the crushed garlic clove with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Add the chopped, seeded tomatoes with the fresh basil, salt and pepper to taste.

Cook for about half an hour and then pass the mixture through a vegetable mill.

Now add the cooked green beans and return to the heat for 5 minutes.

In the meantime, cook the pasta in salted water and once drained, toss with the sauce, sprinkle with salted ricotta or grated Parmesan cheese.

This type of sauce can also be prepared with other vegetables and the usual procedure. It is also excellent with courgettes or fresh peas.

Sauce with Borlotti Beans

For this type of sauce I prefer to use a shorter type of pasta, such as conchiglie, fusilli or farfalle.

Ingredients for 4 people

• grams 400 of short pasta
• grams 300 of cooked borlotti beans
• grams 50 of concentrated tomato sauce
• half a red onion
• olive oil
• salt pepper to taste
• a sprig of rosemary.

Preparation:

In a saucepan fry the finely chopped onion in a little olive oil. When the onion is golden brown, add the beans and stir to flavour for a few minutes. Now add the tomato paste, adding water if necessary until cooked. Adjust the salt and pepper, add the needles of the rosemary sprig and cook for about 15 minutes, adding water if the sauce tends to dry out too much. Add a couple of knobs of butter, mix everything together and season the pasta.

Pasta with potatoes

Needed:

• 400 g short pasta such as penne or fusilli
• 1 celery rib
• 1 small carrot
• 1 small red onion
• grams 500 of potatoes
• grams 400 of tomato puree
• olive oil to taste
• salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:

Fry the finely chopped celery, onion and carrot in a saucepan with a few tablespoons of olive oil. Then add the potatoes, which you have peeled and cut into small chunks. Fry everything for 5 minutes and then add the tomato puree, salt and pepper. Let the sauce cook for about 30 minutes, adding a little water at a time if it tends to dry out too much.

Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water and dress it once drained with the sauce, then sprinkle the dish with grated Parmesan cheese.

Spaghetti with clams

Sauces for our pastas can also be made quickly using fish.

Here are some recipes for dressing spaghetti, but also penne pasta with crustaceans, molluscs or sea fish.

The first is the classic sauce with clams.

Ingredients for 4 persons

• grams 400 of spaghetti
• 1 kilogram of clams
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt, pepper
• enough parsley
• olive oil

Preparation:

First clean the clams and arrange them so that they lose any grains of sand that may be inside the shell, then place the clams in plenty of salted water for a couple of hours. Within this time they should open and release any grains of sand. Before soaking them, it is a good idea to check the clams one by one to remove any that have broken shells or are already open because they are not good to eat.

In a saucepan put a few tablespoons of olive oil and the clove of garlic crushed with a fork. Once the garlic is golden brown, remove it and add the washed and cleaned clams. Cover and cook for a few minutes until the shells have all opened.

In the meantime, cook the spaghetti al dente and once drained, toss them with the clams to which you will leave a few tablespoons of cooking water, adding a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

Penne with scampi

A really tasty first course, easy to prepare and quick.

The longest part of this dish is the preparation of the scampi.

The scampi must be peeled in the back, removing the heads and the black vein. The flesh should then be cut into small pieces. Leave 4 whole ones if desired for decoration of the finished dish.

Needed:

• 400 grams of penne
• about 15/16 whole shrimps
• 500 g fresh tomatoes, chopped and seeded
• 1 shallot
• 1 clove of garlic
• parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

After cleaning and shucking the langoustines, the heads we have removed will go to prepare a stock which will be used for cooking the other ingredients.

Then cook the heads in a litre of water for about an hour, strain the resulting broth.

In a rather large frying pan, sauté the finely chopped shallot and clove of garlic in a little olive oil. Add the tomatoes cut into strips. Cook for about ten minutes, adding some fish stock. In this pan now cook the 4 langoustines that you have left whole for about ten minutes. Once this is done, remove the whole langoustines and set them aside.

Now add the langoustine flesh in small pieces, adding stock a little at a time to prevent the sauce from drying out too much.

Cook for no more than 5 minutes. In the meantime we have cooked the penne in plenty of salted water, and once drained add them to the sauce inside the pan, putting it back on the heat and stirring with the sauce, adding a little more broth for a couple of minutes, adjusting the salt and adding the chopped parsley.

Place the whole langoustine on top of each plate of penne and serve at the table.