Quick and Easy Pasta Recipes with Few Ingredients

Quick and Easy Pasta Recipes with Few Ingredients

Pasta recipes for dinner Healthy pasta recipes Healthy pasta recipes easy Quick and Easy Pasta Recipes with Few Ingredients Easy pasta recipes for dinner Family pasta dinner ideas

 

Hey, lovelies if you are pasta lovers like I am then today you have come to the right place as you know all month long I’m sharing easy weeknight dinner ideas and today it is all about three amazing pasta dishes.

 

Orecchiette with Chicken Meatballs

starting with my new all-time favorite this amazing or a Canty served with chicken meatballs 

Ingredients – 

• 2 tbsp – chopped fresh basil 
• 1 lb – dried orecchiette pasta
• 1 tsp – Italian seasoning
• 1 lb – ground chicken
• 1 cup – baby bocconcini cheese
• 1/2 cup – breadcrumbs
• 1 cup – chicken broth
• 1/4 cup – freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup – chicken broth
• 1 – large egg
• 4 cups – halved cherry tomatoes 
• 2 tbsp – chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tbsp – oil
• 1 – garlic clove, grated
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions –

Step 1

for this recipe, we’re gonna get started by mixing up our meatballs the great part is you could do this during your Sunday meal prep if you wanted to and then just cook everything come Monday Tuesday Wednesday night whenever you’re ready to eat 

 

Step 2

now I’m using ground chicken in this recipe you could use some ground turkey or some ground beef if you wanted to switch things up and I’m just gonna start with some Italian style breadcrumbs

 

Step 3

I’m also going to be using one egg in this recipe I’ve got some freshly grated Parmesan headed in here as well as some freshly chopped parsley which adds a ton of great fresh flavor

then I’m also going to be grating in one clove of garlic it’s always a good idea to grate your garlic in a recipe so that no one gets a big chunk of garlic in their meatball 

 

Step 4

we’re gonna hit this really generously with some salt and of course the pepper we’re the result there is almost always pepper in my kitchen

then give it all a good mix until everything is well combined to form my meatballs I’m actually going to be using this amazing cookie scoop that’s going to keep them nice and even and help them cook more evenly which of course I love 

 

once your meatballs are prepared it’s time to get them to the stove now using a large flat bottomed skillet for this job because I’m going to be cooking a lot of meatballs at once and I don’t want them to be overcrowded

 

Step 5

I’ll start by heating up a good amount of oil in my pan because I don’t want these sticking and then I’ll transfer my meatballs into the pan now I’ve said it before 

and I’ll say it again when it comes to cooking meat like this you don’t want to disturb it until it releases easily from the pan that’s how you know it’s ready to flip otherwise your meatballs will start to fall apart that’s the kind of color 

we are going for it looking great then I’ll cook them for another two to three minutes before adding my tomatoes to my pan and some chicken broth to that 

now the best part about this recipe is that those tomatoes and that chicken broth or going cook up together to become the sauce for our pasta but they’re also going to help our meatballs stay nice and moist 

 

Step 6

while they finish cooking what’s not to love I like to pop a lid on this for the first 5 minutes or so of cooking that helps trap the heat and less our meatballs cook through and then I’ll remove the lid and let this cook up for another 5 minutes while that sauce reduces a little bit 

at that point, we can check our meatballs to make sure they are fully cooked we want them to reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit 

 

Step 7

once that’s happened we can add our cooked pasta straight into the pot and give everything a good stir 

if you’re finding things are a little dry I recommend adding a little bit of your pasta water into the pot as well that adds a little bit of additional moisture

 

Step 8

I’ll hit this with some salt and some pepper give it a good stir and once it’s all mixed up my final step will be melting a little bit of cheese on this to do that I’m actually going to be using these mini bocconcini balls

bocconcini is actually just fresh mozzarella she is I just like to pop the lid back on my skillet and in mere minutes

what you have is a delicious masterpiece full of gooey cheese a great tasting tomato sauce and those awesome meatballs

 

I like topping this off with just a bit of Italian seasoning and then adding some fresh basil to it the entire team agreed with these meatballs were some of the best they have ever tasted trust me when I tell you this dish is a total winner.

 

Garlic Broccoli Pasta

next for something even simpler but equally delicious we are making this amazing garlic oil and broccolini pasta

Ingredients –

• 1/3 cup – freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 lb – dried rotini pasta
• 1/2 lb – broccolini
• 1/4 cup – olive oil
• 1 tsp – red pepper flakes
• 4 – garlic cloves, lightly smashed
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions – 

Step 1

it all starts by making some garlic oil so once again I’ve got a nice big skillet heating up on the stove and to that, I’m going to add a good helping of olive oil you want to make sure you’re adding enough olive oil here

because we’re going to be infusing it with amazing garlic flavor and it’s essentially going to become the sauce for our pasta 

 

Step 2

at this point, we are going to add some garlic cloves to this as you can see I’ve got whole garlic cloves I’ve just given them a quick smash and I’m going to get them into that oil with some red pepper flakes and I let those hang out for between one and two minutes that’s really all it takes for that oil to become infused with that amazing garlic flavor

then we can remove our garlic from the pan and get to work on sauteing our broccolini I want to give it a 2 to 3 minute head start just to help it soften up a little bit and then it’s time to add our pasta to this pot

 

Step 3

now I’m using some cooked rotini here any type of pasta will do it’s just really important that you reserved 1 cup of the cooking water because we’re also going to be adding that into the pot and the starch from that pasta water is going to help add a little more moisture to this dish as well as some richness

we’re just gonna let all of this cook up for another two to three minutes until the pasta water evaporates

 

Step 4

our final step will be stirring in our Parmesan cheese at this point we just need to finish it off with a little salt and some pepper and it is ready to be devoured

guys what you have is this amazingly simple but sophisticated dinner that while so easy to make is really really heavy on flavor I promise you it will not last long.

 

Creamy Orzotto with Pancetta and Peas

finally guys for something a little different today I am making what we’re calling an orzo tow it’s essentially a risotto but instead of rice, we are making it with orzo pasta, and trust me it is going to be real good

Ingredients –

• 1/2 – lemon, zest
• 4 oz – Pancetta, diced
• 1/2 cup – Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 – Yellow onion
• 1 cup – Cream
• 1 1/2 cups – dried orzo
• 1 cup – Frozen green peas
• 3 cups – Chicken broth
• 1/4 cup – White wine
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions – 

Step 1

this recipe starts by cooking up some pancetta once again in nice large skillet pancetta is essentially Italian bacon if you can’t find it at your supermarket not to worry you can use regular bacon in this recipe or even some chopped ham you want to cook your pancetta until it’s a bit crispy on the edges that’s how you get the best texture from it and then once it’s fully cooked we’ll just transfer it over to a bowl and get to work on the rest of our yummy dish 

 

Step 2

the good news is the pancetta has released a lot of its oils so that’s what we’re going to use to fry up our onion once our onion has softened up a little bit we can go ahead and add our orzo to the pan I’ll toss that for a minute or so and when you see it become nice and shiny you know it’s time to add your white wine to the pan

now if you don’t want to use white wine in this recipe you definitely don’t have to you could use a little more chicken broth instead but the white wine really does add a ton of great flavor I like cooking up my orzo in that white wine for two to three minutes before adding my chicken broth to this 

 

Step 3 

now in a traditional risotto, you would usually add your chicken broth a little at a time and let it absorb at each step but come on it was time for that on a busy weeknight we’ll let that chicken broth come to a simmer and then we’re going to let this cook away for between 12 and 14 minutes or until that orzo is nice and tender 

it’s really important when you’re making a one pot pasta like this to keep it moving you want to stir it every two to three minutes to prevent it from sticking but you’ll see slowly but surely you’ll end up with this really creamy pasta dish and all of that liquid will have been absorbed then it’s time to finish this off by adding our pancetta back into the skillet 

 

Step 4

I’m also adding some green peas to this I like hitting this with a splash of cream for some richness some freshly grated Parmesan for even more wonderful flavor another great finisher in a dish like this is lemon zest I know it might sound a little odd but with all of these amazing savory flavors 

 

it’s nice to get just a hit of freshness at the end of cooking little salt little pepper a good stir and this stuff is ready to be devoured trust me you won’t believe how much flavor is in every spoonful who would complain about having this for dinner 

I hope you’ll give all three of these delicious pasta dishes a try and if you do be sure to follow me on Pinterest because I daily post video recipes on this platform.

 

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