5 of the best easy weeknight pasta recipes.

This pasta has not amassed over 5 million views on TikTok for nothing. It’s easy to throw together, hard to mess up, and will have you craving more minutes after you’ve put your bowl in the sink and sworn you’re not having another serving.

Ingredients: 

• 100g unsmoked pancetta (or bacon), thinly sliced into 1.5cm pieces
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 2 shallots, finely diced
• 4 cloves garlic, finely sliced, chopped or grated
• 200g Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
• 80g double concentrate tomato paste
• ¾ cup cream
• 300g short pasta, such as fusilli, orechiette or rigatoni
• 1 bunch broccolini, sliced in 2cm pieces
• 1 bunch chives, finely chopped
• Parmesan, to serve

Method:

1. Prepare a pot of salted, boiling water for your pasta.

2. Heat a large fry pan over medium heat for the sauce.

3. Fry pancetta (or bacon) in the pan until golden and crispy, then use a slotted spoon or spatula to remove into a bowl (leave the rendered pancetta fat in the pan).

4. Add olive oil and unsalted butter to pan.

5. Once butter has melted, add chilli flakes, shallots and garlic (with a big pinch of salt) and sauté until translucent.

6. Add mushrooms and sauté until brown and softened.

7. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring, until colour has deepened (about 2 mins).

8. Add cream and stir until combined.

9. Add pancetta and chives to sauce, and continue to simmer on very low.

10. Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente. In the last two minutes of cooking, add broccolini. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water.

11. Strain pasta and broccolini, add to the sauce and stir to combine.

12. Loosen the sauce up with some reserved pasta water.

13. Taste and season, then serve with Parmesan and go to heaven.

Feature Image: Instagram @intothesauce.

Love to travel? Take this short survey now to go in the running to win a $50 gift voucher!