If planning my meals for the week were an Olympic sport, I’d be a gold medalist. Okay, maybe bronze. But I love planning out each dish and overlapping ingredients between recipes to get the most value for my buck. Some of my favorite meals are pasta dishes because they’re easy to meal-prep or whip up in half an hour. Pasta is cheap, shelf-stable, and incredibly versatile, so it’s perfect for a college student too. Here are five of my favorite pasta recipes I’ve made for my weeknight dinners. Try them out the next time you’re stuck on what to cook!
Broccoli Cheddar Pasta
Recipe: Taste of Home
A new take on a classic soup! This pasta is similar to a mac and cheese but includes bits of broccoli to mimic broccoli cheddar soup. For the best reheating results, I batch make the sauce at the beginning of the week (mixing in the broccoli), then cook a portion of pasta for dinner each night and heat up the sauce alongside it. I love topping this with more shredded cheddar or parmesan cheese.
Creamy Lemon Orzo with Meatballs
Recipe: @freshofftheraq on Instagram
Orzo is one of the more underrated pasta shapes, so this lemon orzo is a great start to eating more of it! In this recipe, Raquel uses leeks, but they’re hard to find, so you can use onion for a similar flavor. She also cuts up a whole lemon, but I chose to use just the juice and zest, and it still turned out great. You can include spinach in the orzo and then top it off with meatballs. I got mine from Aldi, which has meatless versions too, and cooked according to package instructions.
Balsamic Sausage Pasta
If you’re not a fan of creamy pasta sauces, this quick, balanced recipe will easily become a weeknight staple. What you’re need to do is cook onion and garlic in a pan until translucent, then add in sausage and halved cherry tomatoes, crush everything up, and cook until the sausage is browned. Add your preferred seasonings and 3 tablespoons of balsamic glaze, simmering until the sauce is thickened. Mix with pasta and some spinach, and it’s ready to eat! Orecchiette or shells are great shapes for this dish because the little sausage pieces get caught in the cup. You can also easily replace the sausage with tofu crumbles if you’re vegetarian or on a budget.
Garlic Hummus Pasta
Stay with me here! Hummus makes a great, low-effort creamy sauce for pasta. All you need to do is cook a couple of minced garlic cloves in some olive oil, then add in hummus and pasta water for a thick, creamy sauce. You can also add a splash of lemon juice and some red pepper flakes for an extra bite of flavor. Mix it with spaghetti and it’s absolutely delicious! This is a really great base recipe where you can add different proteins or veggies and play around with flavors. Maybe use a red pepper hummus or just cut the first step and use garlic hummus! The pasta-bilites are endless (sorry, I had to).
Sesame Chicken Noodles
Okay, noodles aren’t technically pasta, but they’re closely related, and I dream about this dish quite often, so I had to include it. Marinate some small chicken strips in soy sauce, sugar, gochujang, and sesame oil for about half an hour, then cook them in a pan until they’re browned and fully white on the inside—you can just cut into one to check. Then cook the Spicy Garlic Sesame Squiggly Noodles from Trader Joe’s according to package directions and mix in the chicken! You can also add some spinach or even bok choy in for a pop of green. Super easy and absolutely delicious.
On your next grocery run to Aldi or Giant Eagle, turn to these recipes if you’re not sure what to make for dinner! Now I’m craving pasta…