Warmth from the inside: 5 pasta dishes for winter comfort
Five soul-warming pasta dishes to see you through the coldest months. These are the recipes that turn an ordinary winter evening into something worth looking forward to.
Pasta has always been the ultimate comfort food, and it reaches its full potential in winter.
These five dishes are the ones we turn to when the days are short and the temperature drops. Whether you have an afternoon for a slow braise or just 30 minutes on a weeknight, there's something here for every kind of winter evening. Pull on a pair of socks, pour yourself something warm, and let the cooking begin.
1. Roast butternut spaghetti
Roasted butternut is folded into butter, smashed garlic and cream in a pan and then comes the move that makes this dish – a generous amount of Gorgonzola is stirred through until it melts into the sauce.
Roast butternut spaghetti recipe
2. Kipper tagliatelle
The kippers are cooked gently, for just two minutes per side, so they stay tender and flaky rather than drying out. The wood-smoked bacon goes into the same pan until golden, then the crème fraîche is stirred through. A squeeze of lemon lifts everything and chopped dill adds an herbaceous freshness that feels like a genuine contrast to the weight of the smoked ingredients.
3. Cheat's cacio e pepe
Traditional cacio e pepe is one of Rome's most beloved pasta dishes, and also one of its most temperamental. The sauce – made from nothing more than pasta water, pecorino and cracked pepper – is prone to splitting if the temperature is wrong, and it stubbornly resists being made in quantities larger than two portions. This version is a clever solution to both of those problems, and does not sacrifice anything in the process.
4. Garganelli
Not all winter comfort has to come from slow-cooked meat or heavy cream. This garganelli does exactly that, and in 20 minutes. Originating from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, garganelli are ridged, hand-rolled tubes. The finishing touch is pasta cooking water stirred through with the Parmesan, creating a sauce that coats every tube without any need for cream.
5. Butter bean cacio e pepe
Cacio e pepe is one of those dishes that appears deceptively plain until you taste it. This version takes that classic and makes it more filling without losing any of the simplicity that makes the original so beloved.
Butter bean cacio e pepe recipe
This content was created with AI assistance, however it was fact-checked, edited and ideated by actual human beings at TASTE.
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