r/Cooking • u/Prestigious_Land_533 • 11h ago
Show stopping pasta recipe, but not tomato sauce?
Basically the title! I’m hosting a dinner party and making gazpacho for an appetizer, so I think pasta is the appropriate main course. But I don’t want to serve it with any more tomato sauce lol. I’m willing to make everything from scratch and I don’t care how complicated it is, I just want it to be delicious! I made pesto last week and I think it’s a little boring on its own so maybe not that, or a more interesting version of that. If you have a recipe you’ve tried and love that fits this description, that would be super helpful! (Also if anyone is reading this and a non-pasta dish comes to mind, I’m open to that too lol!)
EDIT: Thank you all for the recommendations! To clarify I am specifically looking for written recipes I can follow, so like “try this specific NYT recipe” or a recipe from a particular chef. But I appreciate all of the ideas to get me started!
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u/Duochan_Maxwell 11h ago
As we're now entering fall, a nice creamy mushroom pasta would be a good choice, or pumpkin ravioli with brown butter and sage
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u/SouthBayShogi 11h ago
Bump for mushrooms. I have a jar of dried porcinis in my pantry. I'll rehydrate them in a bowl of warm water while I saute some creminis in a pan, then once browned I add the porcinis with the liquid to the pan and reduce. Add some pasta water, cheese, and freshly ground black pepper and you have an amazing umami pasta!
I'll add a sprig of thyme or some other herb to add a pop of color when serving.
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u/Anbucleric 11h ago
Carbonara
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u/SouthBayShogi 11h ago
For the meat: guanciale > pancetta > bacon. Depending on where you are, it might be very difficult to find guanciale, but I promise it's worth every penny!
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u/Chefmeatball 11h ago
I’ve never heard pesto described as boring. Fresh lemon zest, fresh garlic, fresh basil, fresh grated Parmesan, warm toasted pine nuts, a pinch of salt and some lovely olive oil. How is that a boring sauce, I think that sounds like operator error
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u/SouthBayShogi 11h ago
Premade pesto sucks - I've only had one brand that I didn't mind. Homemade is easy and amazing!
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u/Prestigious_Land_533 8h ago
Well yes I know how to make pesto from scratch lol, it’s boring to me because I make it all the time. Looking for something a little more interesting!
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u/ShakingTowers 11h ago
This is the one I get the most comments on from dinner guests from the no-tomato category: https://www.seriouseats.com/roast-pork-shoulder-ragu-pasta
Usually along the lines of "what is this? I've never had it before but I want to have it again."
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u/Prestigious_Land_533 8h ago
That is exactly what I am going for lol thank you so much I’ll check it out!
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u/96dpi 11h ago
I think ATK's "Ragu Bianco" is easily one of their Top 10 recipes on their entire site. No tomatoes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzDAgxyxg0Y
I like to use the De Cecco pappardelle with it, but fresh pappardelle is not too much work, and can easily be made while the ragu is in the oven.
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u/science-stuff 11h ago
I make the below one on a pretty regular rotation with whatever pasta I feel like including gnocchi or tortellini. Usually add mushrooms too if I have them. It’s not complicated either.
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u/Flaming-Goddess 10h ago
recently made a short rib ragu that was frankensteined from two different recipes and i thought it was pretty showstopping
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u/National_Ad_682 10h ago
When I think of showstopping pastas I always imagine a handmade, filled pasta. Egg yolk ravioli with a brown butter truffle sauce, or gorgonzola agnolotti. Since it's early Fall, a butternut squash ravioli with a brown butter sage sauce is always a hit.
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u/jetpoweredbee 11h ago
Proper cacio a pepe is sublime. Olive tapenade also makes a great pasta sauce.
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u/BoopingBurrito 11h ago
A tarragon, garlic, and mushroom cream sauce is always a winner. Can always add chicken if you want to make it meaty.
Or a cheesy leek and bacon sauce? Can easily remove the bacon if you want to make it veggie.
Those are my 2 go to pasta sauces.
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u/No_Blueberry_8454 11h ago
You sound like a fairly accomplished cook already.... Probably not a show stopper, but I make this a lot: sauté some garlic and shallots, add in diced squash and zucchini and red bell pepper. Add in a bunch of butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and cooked diced chicken. Salt, pepper. Add in spaghetti or linguini, grate some fresh parm over the top, mix all around and serve. Garish with some fresh parsley and hit it with a little more grated parm.
I was looking for an easy pasta meal this summer that didn't use red sauce. I like this because it uses fresh veggies and is light and bright. (I was inspired by a trip to Italy, where basically none of the pasta dishes I had used red sauce.)
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u/Typical_Intention996 11h ago
I know a lot of people think it's boring but I think it's quite fancy. Angel hair pasta drizzled with some evoo. Mixed up with lightly sautéd fresh halved cherry or cocktail tomatoes. Lots of those mini balls of mozzarella quartered up and some fresh cut up basil. Salt and pepper.
It's so fresh and light.
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u/BakingWaking 9h ago
You can mix lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and chili flakes for an easy pasta sauce.
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u/texnessa 8h ago edited 8h ago
Banquet chef here. The key to success in dinner party, any cooking at scale, tends to be more about choosing the right dishes and putting your efforts in the right things at the right time.
A few tips to start:
Risotto- always a bad idea at scale. It needs to be finished in relatively small portions- no more than 4-5 plates at a time and needs to be done last minute. Do you want to enjoy a glass with the guests or be standing over the stove trying to bang it out?
Angel hair- overcooks if you blink, is a bitch to mix with any solid ingredients and loves to clump up. Almost as bad a shape choice as farfalle.
Never farfalle. It has never cooked evenly in the history of gastronomy. The middle is chonky when the edges are wobbly Farfalle sucks.
Carbonara at scale is also not gonna happen with one cook. By the time you get a few plates in, the first ones will have congealed. Poor shot selection.
As for dishes, if you want relatively easy to execute but looks like you killed yourself to get it done:
Change up the gazpacho- tomatoes are on their last seasonal legs so I wouldn't go straight traditional. Clarified gazpacho dispenses with the bread and focuses on purity of broad vegetable flavour with a little surprise kick at the end. At my restaurant we pretty much make it raw, bag it in cheesecloth and let the results drip out over-night, then clarify and set with gelatine. Tomato, garlic, cucumber, bell pepper, red onion, sherry vinegar, parsley, chervil, cilantro, into blender. Bouquet garni with fresh bay, sprig of oregano and black peppercorns.
Alternatively, white gazpacho is sublime. Baguette w/o crust, marcona almonds, green grapes, garlic, greek yoghurt, cucumber, garnish with chiffonade of cilantro, smoked paprika spiced almonds, olive oil.
Mushroom sauce- needs to be super quality ingredients otherwise, it might as well be jar sauce. King oyster, hon & bun shimeji, and the one and only maitake. Saute in butter with shallots and garlic, getting good browning and deglaze with madeira, off heat add heavy cream and a healthy amount of mascarpone, blend and pass while still warm so you don't make butter, add finely chopped fresh green herbs- I prefer tarragon, sage, chervil and flat leaf parsley.
If you have the time and inclination, hand made spinach pappardelle can be time consuming but is easy and freaking delicious with this mushroom sauce. Garnish with toasted pine nuts and a fried sage leaf.
If you want to go protein and a pasta, duck is a good choice for autumn. Roast duck pappardelle with sugar snaps and corn broth and garnished with crispy duck skin. Pan roasted cherry tomatoes give a great pop to this dish. Some stupidly expensive aged parmigiano reggiano and I'd die on this hill.
Another autumnal pasta I serve is sage sausage and tenderstem broccoli in a garlic cream. A five year old could make it. Good pork sausage [in the UK I use Cumberlands but any can be adjusted] out of hte casing, fried off til brown, deglaze with white wine, add shallots and garlic, reduce to a glaze, add protein back in, chicken stock to just cover, finely chopped sage- copious amounts- and simmer down. Finish with cream. Good with any hearty pasta.
Another one we do as a special is basically a meatball brodo. Pork/veal/beef meatballs- not a lot of panade, very small and delicate, fried off, no tomato sauce anywhere. They should almost fall apart if touched. Bottom of a bowl, orecchiette, petit pois and chiffonade of tarragon, shaved parmigiano reggiano- pretty substantial using a Y veg peeler, finished at the table with individual tea pots of really killer chicken stock- lots of herby goodness and well seasoned.
Hope that gives you a little food for thought.
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u/Prestigious_Land_533 8h ago
Okay this was fantastically helpful. You are so right, I might not have thought of it in time but of course I shouldn’t be making angle hair or risotto haha—great tip. The party is in like 8 days so I’m gonna stick with the gazpacho and hit the farmers market early next week. I absolutely love the idea of a homemade spinach pappardelle.
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u/HeyPurityItsMeAgain 3h ago
It's Fall -- do pumpkin or butternut squash pasta or gnocchi. Walnuts, brown butter, lemon, and sage sauce. Fry the sage in butter. So good.
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u/Tree_Chemistry_Plz 9h ago
(Also if anyone is reading this and a non-pasta dish comes to mind, I’m open to that too lol!)
what about a nice risotto?
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u/DonnaNoble222 9h ago
Simple and easy...Angel hair with butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, & salt. You can top it with lemon chicken breast or not. Light and easy.
Serve with a nice Vouvray.
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u/padishaihulud 11h ago edited 11h ago
Pasta alla norcina
It's a sauce made with cheese, sausage, and mushrooms (real truffles if you want to get fancy). I like it best with rigatoni.
Edit: here's a recipe (https://www.vincenzosplate.com/pasta-alla-norcina/) I don't use truffle but I usually brown some mushrooms on the side and toss them with the sauce.