Day: August 7, 2025

“Everyone needs a few quick pasta dinners in their repertoire, and this one is really adaptable,” Garten wrote in “Go-To Dinners,” her most recent cookbook.

“It’s wonderful as is, but you could also serve it with veal meatballs one night and with a big dollop of ricotta the next,” she added. “The pancetta and red wine give it fantastic flavor.”

After a busy day of work, I closed my laptop and headed to the kitchen. It was time to get cooking!

To make four servings of Garten’s weeknight pasta at home, you’ll need:

• 1 pound of dried spaghettoni or bucatini
• 1 ½ cups of chopped yellow onion
• 1 cup of freshly grated Italian pecorino cheese
• ½ cup of dry red wine, such as Chianti
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) of crushed San Marzano tomatoes
• 6 ounces of (¼-inch) diced pancetta
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 ½ teaspoons of sugar
• ½ teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes
• ¼ cup of julienned fresh basil leaves, plus extra for serving

Garten notes that regular spaghetti, which is thinner than spaghettoni, can also be used with this recipe.

I chopped the onion, minced my garlic cloves, and julienned the basil.

Once my prep was done, I filled a large pot with water, added two tablespoons of salt, and brought it to a boil so it would be ready to cook the pasta later.

I added three tablespoons of olive oil to my Dutch oven, which I placed over medium-low heat.

I had bought two 4-ounce packets of diced pancetta, so I decided to add a little more to the pasta. I ended up loving the extra flavor, so I’d recommend trying this.

Garten recommends sautéing the pancetta for five to seven minutes, until the pieces have browned. Once my pancetta was ready, I used a slotted spoon to transfer it to a small bowl.

I sautéed the onion for 10 minutes, until the pieces started to brown.

I cooked everything together for one minute.

Garten recommends cooking everything for three to five minutes, until the liquid has almost entirely evaporated.

I brought the sauce to a boil, then lowered the heat. I allowed everything in the Dutch oven to simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Garten recommends cooking the pasta for two minutes less than al dente according to the directions on the package.

This meant I needed to cook my bucatini for nine minutes, but it definitely wasn’t enough. The noodles were still really tough. I knew they wouldn’t finish cooking in the sauce, so I cooked my pasta a few minutes longer.

Every stove is different, so trust your taste buds (or cook the noodles a little longer in the sauce at the end).

Garten recommends adding one teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper once it’s finished simmering.

After transferring the pasta to the sauce, I also added a splash of pasta water.

I added more pasta water to achieve the “loose sauce” consistency that Garten recommended.

I added half a cup of the pecorino and all the basil and tossed everything together with my tongs.

One of my go-to spots when I lived in NYC was Cotenna, an Italian restaurant in the West Village. It was tiny, intimate, and affordable, and my girlfriends and I absolutely loved it.

The service was always great, the wine was always cheap, and the pasta was always delicious. Everything about the place just felt warm. And something about Garten’s weeknight pasta — which focuses on classic, approachable Italian ingredients — brought me right back there.

Garten’s weeknight pasta doesn’t just look like it comes from a cute little Italian restaurant — it tastes like it does, too.

The rich pancetta worked so well with the earthy flavors of the basil and Chianti, and the San Marzano tomatoes added a lovely, subtle sweetness. The kick of the red pepper flakes rounded out the sauce, which had a surprising depth of flavor despite looking quite simple.

This dish was also finished in about 30 minutes with very minimal prep or effort. Who doesn’t love that?

Overall, Garten’s favorite weeknight pasta tasted delicious and elevated. I know I’ll definitely whip it up again, even after a long workday.