10 Penne Recipes for Quick Weeknight Dinners

Serious Eats has compiled ten penne pasta recipes to answer the weeknight dinner dilemma. The collection includes classic comfort foods, vegetable-heavy dishes, and shortcuts for deep flavor.

Penne is a versatile pantry staple that forms the base for these dinners. Some recipes suggest other short pastas but work perfectly with penne. The recipes aim for satisfying results with manageable preparation times.

Classic Comforts

Several recipes focus on rich, familiar flavors. Penne alla vodka uses tomato paste and whole peeled tomatoes for a deep sauce, enriched with cream and finished with vodka and Parmesan. Pasta prosciutto e piselli combines salty prosciutto cotto with sweet peas in a cream sauce flavored with onion, rosemary, thyme, white wine, and nutmeg. Penne arrabbiata offers a rustic, fiery tomato sauce where the cook controls the heat level from chiles.

Vegetable & Shortcut Sauces

Other recipes highlight vegetables or use flavorful shortcuts. The melted-vegetable sauce recipe cooks potatoes, carrots, green beans, fennel, and red onion until tender enough to blend into a sauce with olive oil, garlic, parsley, and Parmesan. For a meaty kick without long cooking, the spicy ‘nduja-tomato sauce uses the soft Calabrian salumi that melts into a sauce made with jarred passata, shallots, and chile.

Hearty Additions

For more substantial meals, recipes incorporate proteins. Chicken and penne in vodka cream sauce features tender chicken slices in a silky tomato and cream sauce, served with Parmesan-crusted garlic bread. Penne boscaiola, or woodsman-style pasta, builds a rich sauce with earthy mushrooms, smoky bacon, tomato, and cream. The easy skillet baked ziti with sausage and ricotta streamlines the classic by cooking Italian sausage, pasta, and cheeses in one pan, with pre-soaked pasta speeding up the process.

Umami & Complexity

The final recipes deliver complex flavors quickly. Pasta with burst cherry tomatoes and XO sauce creates a fresh, creamy tomato base amplified by umami-rich XO sauce, garlic, shallots, herbs, and chile. Pasta ai funghi relies on a generous mix of browned mushrooms for a savory foundation, enhanced with shallots, garlic, white wine, a splash of fish sauce, butter, and Parmesan.

The source presents these as solutions for turning a bag of penne into dinner with minimal fuss. It notes the personal home for recipes, MyRecipes, as a place to save favorites.