Easy Pastas

The story goes that Beef Stroganoff was created by French chefs working for the influential Stroganov family in mid-19th century Russia. But food historians argue that earlier versions of this dish existed long before the mid-19th century, and the iteration we know today is a refined version of older Russian recipes.

Today, you’re likely to find Beef Stroganoff among an array of classic catering dishes at a Filipino wedding, or perhaps at your baby cousin’s christening. Or maybe you’ll find it served at your next family gathering, because your Tita swears it’s her signature dish. Whether you serve it with pasta or rice, this dish is the perfect go-to when you want something homey, hearty, and comforting.

We recommend using sirloin for this recipe. It’s one of the most versatile and flavorful cuts, and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. But if cooked wrong, sirloin can end up being dry, tough, and unpleasant to eat.

Sirloin comes from the rear part of the cow, which tends to be leaner, so cooking it right is essential to getting that tender, delicate chew. Keep your slices thin, and avoid overcrowding the pan when you’re searing. If there are too many pieces of beef in your pan, heat can get trapped under the food. This results in too much moisture, steaming your beef rather than searing it! Searing the meat properly helps develop color and flavor, which is what you want in a rich, meaty dish like Beef Stroganoff.

More importantly, be careful not to overcook the meat. When you overcook meat, you risk rendering out all the fat and liquid inside it that makes it tender, juicy, and flavorful. It’ll leave you with nothing but tough muscle fibers that are impossible to chew. The beef will continue to cook as it simmers in the gravy, so there’s no need to cook it the whole way through while you’re searing it.

The gravy should be rich, creamy, and just slightly sour. Some versions of Stroganoff use cream of mushroom instead of heavy cream, or replace sour cream with Greek yogurt or crème fraîche, which can be hard to source at your local grocery store. Ours uses a combination of sour cream, heavy cream, and dijon mustard (brown mustard works too!) to get a velvety mouthfeel, and a touch of that addictive, bright, and tangy flavor.

Ingredients

Beef Stroganoff

Beef strips cooked in a sour cream gravy and served on a bed of rice (or pasta) can be both a comforting weeknight meal or a show-stopping party dish.

 one graduates from hotdogs and processed cheese to explore the wider world of Italian red pasta sauces. There's classic 

 the Italian blueprint for Pinoy spaghetti. 

 meaning angry, lives up to its name with spicy chilies.

Then there's puttanesca, which some say was invented by Italian prostitutes. If the story is to be believed, the potent mix of anchovies, garlic, olives, and capers gave the pasta an aroma powerful enough to lure customers in. We get it. Who wouldn't be hooked on puttanesca's tangy, briny, savory, spicy flavors?

Headline Title

No anchovy fillets? Use another fish... or bagoong

Traditional puttanesca calls for anchovy fillets, which you're least likely to have lying around in your pantry. But you know what every Filipino household has? Bagoong.

We've used the funky paste to replace anchovies in 

 It should work in puttanesca, too. Start with a small amount of bagoong, then adjust to taste—you don't want to go overboard.

If you prefer something more mildly-flavored, puttanesca can take any firm, conveniently packed fish chopped or flaked into bite-sized pieces:

Pasta Puttanesca

For Garnish (Optional)

Pasta Puttanesca (Pasta with Anchovies, Capers, and Olives)

Pantry ingredients—anchovies, capers, olives, garlic, canned tomatoes—make puttanesca a quick and easy weeknight recipe. 

Let canned cream of mushroom live a life beyond heat-and-eat soup. In this recipe, we use it as an instant substitute for 

Once you've made your spaghetti, it goes into a baking dish in a single layer. Cream of mushroom, warmed on the stove and seasoned with a bit of nutmeg, follows on top. Shredded mozzarella and cheddar help it bake up into a blanket of 

 It's all the joy and pleasure of children's party spaghetti tucked into a dinner party dish. What's not to like?

Filipino Spaghetti

Cheesy Cream of Mushroom Topping

Make Filipino Spaghetti

Bake Spaghetti

Baked Filipino Spaghetti

Top this baked Filipino spaghetti with two kinds of cheese and one surprise ingredient: cream of mushroom soup.

Spaghetti with garlic and oil, or Aglio e Olio, provides a stage for 

 to shine in the spotlight. In a pasta setting, the fishy Filipino condiment makes sense when you think of it like anchovies: both transform sauces with their salty, briny meatiness.

Undercooking your pasta sounds like an error, but don't worry. The pasta will finish al dente in the pan, coated in the glossy garlic-bagoong sauce. A garnish of lemony toasted breadcrumbs add a sunny crunch.

Breadcrumb Topping

Bagoong Aglio E Olio

Bagoong Aglio e Olio (Pasta in Bagoong, Garlic, & Oil)

Bagoong makes a flavorful addition to classic aglio e olio, or spaghetti in garlic and oil.

Truffle oil gets a lot of bad rap. Chefs hate it for its synthetic flavor, replicating none of the complexity that makes real truffles so special. Anthony Bourdain had 

 to say about it; Martha Stewart downright calls it 

 abused by lazy cooks as a shortcut to fancier-tasting food.

But fresh truffles are ridiculously expensive, difficult to acquire, and a hassle to store. If you’re a home cook who’s a sucker for that delicious earthy aroma, truffle oil is your best bet.

Truffle oil is available in most grocery stores. You'll find two kinds: White truffle oil has a delicate fragrance, while black truffle oil has a stronger, earthier musk. It generally follows that the more expensive the truffle oil, the better. Buy it in small quantities.

Now that you have truffle oil in your pantry, remember:

 Truffle oil is a finishing oil, and should be drizzled in small amounts right before serving. Heat will burn off all that aroma you paid for!

Every time you use too much truffle oil, a truffle oil hater is born. Too much of it can quickly overwhelm a dish. Use truffle oil with a light hand: start with a teaspoon, taste, then add more if needed. (You probably won't.)

What pairs well with truffle oil? Everything in this pasta: bacon, mushrooms, cheese, and 

Truffle Cream Pasta with Bacon

A drizzle of truffle oil makes this creamy bacon-mushroom pasta taste like a million bucks.

While Jolly Spaghetti is the undisputed poster child for Pinoy sweet-style 

 Pancake House's comes in a close second. It's still sweet enough to make pasta purists cry, but holds back on the 

Pancake House spaghetti is less fast-food and more like mom's cooking: tomato sauce, ground beef, grated cheese.

This is an overdue update to our original 10-year old (!) Pancake House spaghetti recipe. A tablespoon of liver spread sets everything right. (It's not Pinoy spaghetti without at least one weird ingredient.) The brow-raising liter of water has been reduced to 1 cup.

Is it 100% accurate? Probably not. But this copycat spaghetti will bring back memories of orange walls and faded movie posters, guaranteed. Make it a combo meal and serve with 

Want to Make It Vegan?

Spaghetti Sauce

For Serving

Pancake House-Style Spaghetti

Filipino pastas get a lot of hate for not being the “real” thing. 

 for example, is never taken as seriously as spaghetti bolognese. The same goes for Filipino carbonara, which purists will compare to 

 “Carbonara uses eggs, not cream!” “There’s no bacon in true carbonara,” they cry.

And yeah, the purists are right: Filipino carbonara is not 

 And who cares? Like Pinoy spaghetti, it deserves a category of its own. Instead of eggs and Italian 

 this carbonara has a garlicky cream-based sauce flecked with mushrooms and bacon. Use the best spaghetti you can get, and you’ll have yourself a carbonara that’s better than the “real” thing.

Roasted Garlic

Carbonara

Best Filipino Carbonara with Bacon

We're tired of the "Filipino carbonara isn't carbonara debate". This creamy, bacon-flecked pasta deserves a category of its own.

If you don’t want to fry your Vigan longganisa, cut them up and use the meat for this easy pasta recipe. Longganisa needs no seasoning—you get spicy, super-garlicky flavors right off the bat. Fry the meat until brown, add tomatoes and basil for freshness, then finish with smoked paprika for a touch of sweetness. We use fettuccine in this recipe, but feel free to swap it out with whatever pasta you have.

Vigan Longganisa Pasta with Tomatoes and Basil

It's Vigan, not vegan. Toss your Vigan longganisa with fettuccine for an easy, fresh pasta dish.

 has cream, Italian carbonara sauce uses eggs—raw yolks, to be exact. This understandably raises some concerns, so we cook our carbonara sauce over a double-boiler. The mild heat pasteurizes the eggs while gently curdling them into a velvety, cheesy sauce.

 (salted pork jowl), which can be difficult and expensive to source. 

 is mellower in flavor, but makes a fine (and slightly cheaper) substitute. In a pinch, go with thick-cut bacon—we won’t tell the purists.

Italian Carbonara with Pecorino and Pancetta

Use a double-boiler for an Italian carbonara that's as good as the traditional stuff—without the uncooked eggs.

 is just what its name suggests: penne pasta tossed in a creamy vodka-spiked tomato sauce. In early 2020, the dish found traction with the Tiktok generation because of model Gigi Hadid, who shared her recipe online.

This simple recipe starts with aromatics, followed by a sauce of tomato paste, cream, and vodka. If you wanted penne alla vodka, you'd stop there. But our version takes a page out of pasta bake and adds an extra step—we transfer the pasta into an oven-safe dish, top it with cheese, then bake to finish. The result: penne alla vodka, crisped in some edges, crowned with a melty cheese topping.

Vodka Sauce

Pasta

Cheesy Baked Penne Alla Vodka

This easy penne alla vodka gets a cheesy, gooey baked mozzarella topping.

 penne, gets its name from the melted mozzarella in the dish. When stretched into long strands, the cheese resembles 

This hack comes together with surprising ease. Cook the pasta, make the creamy tomato sauce and add shredded mozzarella—that's it. True to its name, each forkful is connected by a web of stringy cheese. Serve warm before it loses its stretch.

Pasta Sauce

Cibo-Style Penne Al Telefono

Our Cibo Penne al Telefono hack makes a simple but hearty pasta dish, combining creamy tomato sauce with stretchy mozzarella cheese.

Everyone should have a good back-pocket recipe, like this

bolognese that we made. It's easy to make yet extremely satisfying. The customary way of making it involves stuff like celery, wine, and pancetta. But with our version, you can also whip up a version that uses regular aromatics, bouillon cube-based stock, and other ingredients straight out of your pantry.

Longganisa Bolognese Pasta

This bolognese recipe is a Filipino take on the meat sauce that you can easily make for a mid-week dinner using pantry staples.

Roasting vegetables makes them sweet and tender. It's a convenient, hands-free way to cook them too, with no recipe or technique required. Chop your veg, coat in olive oil, season, then toss in a hot oven.

Treat this recipe as a template for the roasted vegetable pasta of your dreams. Here we pair rigatoni and sundried tomato pesto, with crumbled feta cheese and basil as garnish. Use as little or as many vegetables as you like, with whatever pasta shape and sauce you fancy.

Roasted Vegetables and Feta Pasta

This pasta recipe combines colorful roasted vegetables, crumbled feta cheese, and sundried tomato pesto for a veg-heavy, feel-good meal.

Mamou has been a well-reputed institution for a food experience that hardly disappoints. One of their consistent staple among patrons is their Lorenzo Truffle Cream pasta, a dish that has made appetites dance in rejoice—it makes you forget about the existence of conscious eating. 

factor, unlike other cream-based pasta dishes. It only takes six simple ingredients to let its true flavors shine and make your eyes roll once the devouring begins.

Mamou Lorenzo Truffle Cream Pasta

This sweet Filipino-style spaghetti mom's homemade spaghetti. It's a tried-and-tested recipe that we've perfected to pass our criteria for the best Pinoy spaghetti. It's just the balance of sweet and tomato-y with the iconic bright red color along with the hotdogs, al dente spaghetti, and who can ever forget, the processed cheese.

Spaghetti

Best Pinoy Sweet Spaghetti

Our best Filipino spaghetti recipe uses three sources of tomato sauces for a sweet, tomato-y, and distinctly red pasta—hotdogs included.

Asian Food Network host and chef Sarah Huang Benjamin shares a recipe that marries Singaporean black pepper crab with Italian cacio e pepe. Black pepper unites the two, culminating in a cheesy seafood pasta that will have you asking for seconds.

Black Pepper Crab Cacio e Pepe

Singaporean black pepper crab meets Italian cacio e pepe in this pasta recipe from Sarah Huang Benjamin.

If you’re as much a fan of Yellow Cab’s Charlie Chan chicken pasta as we are, I bet these 2 questions have crossed your mind before: Who’s Charlie Chan? And more importantly how does one recreate this sweet yet fiery bowl at home?

We can’t give a legitimate answer to where this dish gets its namesake. But what we can guarantee is that we’ve come up with the definitive Charlie Chan food hack that captures all the savory goodness of the original.

Sauce

Yellow Cab-Inspired Charlie Chan Pasta

We don't know where the name comes from, but we do know what goes into Yellow Cab's Charlie Chan chicken pasta.

In support of McCormick's lifestyle-changing initiatives, we’ve crafted a low-cost, healthy recipe that we see as the future of small, online food shops. The pandemic has taught diners to pay more attention to our overall wellness. We’ve seen a rise in plant-based foods, or at the very least, healthy alternatives. Although not vegan, this chicken meatball pasta recipe we’ve made is a more wholesome take on spaghetti but doesn’t sacrifice flavor.

Lean Chicken Meatballs

Tomato Sauce

Garnish

Healthy Chicken Meatball Pasta

In partnership with McCormick, we've crafted this chicken meatball pasta as a healthier alternative to our fave indulgent foods.

We love vegetables just as much as the next plant-based person. But there’s more to being vegetarian than just swapping everything out with fruits and greens. From tofu katsudons to mushroom burgers, there’s so much opportunity to be creative here.

Adding to the list is this vegetarian baked ziti recipe. It’s our take on the classic baked ziti, except it doesn’t have any meat. Nor does it swap what would’ve otherwise been ground beef with vegetables. Instead, we use 

, a locally produced meat-free alternative to ground meat!

The result is still the creamy, gooey baked ziti everyone loves, complete with a “meaty” element.

Baked Ziti

Cheese Topping

Veega Vegetarian Baked Ziti

This vegetarian baked ziti recipe (which you can make vegan!) delivers the meat-packed experience thanks to Veega giniling.

Christmas is an opportunity to flex your cooking muscles, and give yourself a new reputation. Wow your companions with a Mediterranean dish that turns you instantly into Nigella Lawson, queen of indulgent but easy cooking, with the help of just a few quality ingredients.

The word Provençale might sound like a mouthful, but this slow-braised plate is both approachable and impressive, and will win the hearts of your family or your officemates.

The best, bright flavors of the French coast are represented here, using Contadina’s Stewed Tomatoes, which have a generous helping of herbs that lift the product’s recipe above standard cans and bottles.

With your chicken browned and deglazed with wine, simmering it in nothing else but the tomatoes (and maybe a little sugar) leaves all their rich, slightly acidic sweetness to be the predominant profile.

While this method can often take hours to achieve results, the stewed tomatoes provide so much flavor, that just an hour of finishing up your last work emails will suffice. Finish with a knob of Contadina’s standout fresh, green, nutty and full-bodied pesto and just a few olives, and you’ll transport people to Provence.

On top of al dente linguine, dressed in nothing but pure olive oil, this potluck pleaser will be the dish everyone will want to have on your office or family Christmas feast every year.