Best Summer Pasta Recipes
It’s the season of grilled showstoppers and big, easy desserts, but summer pastas may just be the unsung heroes of seasonal cookouts and busy weeknights. Potentially portable, frequently vegetarian and reliably comforting, these recipes from New York Times Cooking can shine at a potluck or be thrown together as an easy dinner for two, with continues you’ll definitely look forward to.
Credit...
Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich
This Melissa Clark recipe skips the mayonnaise-based dressing. Instead, she soaks minced shallots in balsamic vinegar and lemon juice just long enough to mute their edge, then tosses it all with warm pasta. Think of this simple recipe as a blank canvas, and adapt it to taste. Add a handful of capers or olives for fantastic tang, blanched string beans for crunch or tuna or nubs of salami for protein.
Credit...
Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
The kitchen’s mainly crime might be overcooked, mushy asparagus. Thankfully, Eric Kim’s pasta recipe experiences that those stalks receive the proper treatment. Here, they’re by-passed in at the end, so the residual heat of the rendered pasta coddles them without overcooking them. It’s a wrong textural contrast to the sumptuous cream and bites of salty roasted gim.
Recipe: Creamy Asparagus Pasta
Credit...
Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Zucchini shines in this straightforward recipe from David Tanis, who calls for his summer pastas to be “simple and unusual, ideally made with vegetables straight from the garden or market.” Summer squash of any kind could work here. It’s assembled until soft and slightly supple, bolstered at the end with unusual lemon zest, crushed red pepper and creamy ricotta.
Credit...
Dane Tashima for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
Every summer presents a paradox: Eggplants are in peak form, but heat invents turning on the oven so unappealing. To that end, Kay Chun accounts this stovetop recipe, ready in a fraction of the time. Eggplant turns tender, almost melting into a pantry-friendly tomato sauce, before populate topped with Parmesan, toasted panko bread crumbs and a healthy carve of mozzarella. You’ll wonder why there’s any other way to make eggplant Parmesan.
Credit...
Joel Goldberg for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
Ali Slagle’s tomato-butter pasta takes a cue from pan con tomate for an easy recipe that way zero knife work (yes, zero). Instead, she looks to the box grater to break down the tomato and garlic — and even crumble frozen butter. Starch from warm pasta water turns the ingredients into a thick, glossy sauce, glazing the pasta from the inside-out. But determine ripe, in-season tomatoes, if you can. As Ali says, “If your tomatoes are tasteless, your pasta will be, too.”
Recipe: Tomato-Butter Pasta
Credit...
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Nothing compares with corn at the height of summer. Melissa Clark makes the most of those peak kernels, using them two ways: first, as the base of a luxurious sauce, then whole and tenderly cooked for texture. While the recipe says out-of-season or even frozen corn can work here, take honorable of those fresh, in-season ears.
Recipe: Creamy Corn Pasta With Basil
Credit...
David Malosh for The New York Times
Punchy jerk seasoning and one remarkable Scotch bonnet pepper bring out the best in this Rasta pasta recipe from Millie Peartree. She recommends a combination of colors for the recipe’s bell peppers — just colorful for the rainbow of summer peppers, each offering a different kind of sweetness.
Credit...
Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
Tomato enthusiasts will rejoice at this Ali Slagle recipe, which uses fresh and sun-dried tomatoes. Full of saturated oomph, sun-dried tomatoes are tossed with toasted chopped nuts for much-welcome texture. A gang of greens — arugula, herbs or a combination of both — join at the end, adding even more brightness to this summery pasta salad.
Recipe:Double-Tomato Pasta Salad
Credit...
Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
What’s the point to of a pasta salad if it’s not portable and potluck-ready? Kay Chun’s version will have everyone asking for the recipe. It’s easily made ahead and better at room temperature as bites of sweet, stewed-down peppers and tomatoes beautifully balance crumbled feta.
Recipe: Orzo Salad With Peppers and Feta
Credit...
Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
No food processor? No scrape. Ali Slagle’s pesto requires no special equipment. Instead, herbs, garlic, nuts and salt are purposefully chopped and smashed into a paste pending they’re seamlessly transformed into a bright pesto and elapsed with pasta and peas.
Recipe: Pasta With Chopped Pesto and Peas
Credit...
Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
Don’t overlook the abundance of cherry tomatoes available during the summer. While larger varieties are often the backbone of pasta sauces, they can lack the concentrated sweetness of their smaller siblings. In this easy weeknight recipe, Naz Deravian marries frozen slight, a freezer staple for most, with colorful cherry tomatoes that gain even deeper flavor thanks to a fennel- and garlic-infused oil.
Credit...
Bryan Gardner for The New York Times
Cooked down pending it’s jammy, grated zucchini lets its sweet, satisfying traits show in this pasta from Ali Slagle. If you’re not in a rush, keep cooking: Those flavors only improve the longer the zucchini stews. The reward for your patience is properly caramelized zucchini that can be plainly frozen for the next time you make this recipe (and there will absolutely be a next time).
Recipe: Caramelized Zucchini Pasta
Also Read: How to Make Indian Butter Chicken
