A bowl of linguine and 44 more great pasta recipes

A bowl of pasta is one of the most satisfying things you can have for dinner, whether extravagantly sauced with fresh uni or tossed simply with ripe tomatoes and just-picked basil.

Good pasta recipes run a similar gamut, from complicated cheffy things to whatever’s in your kitchen — a bit of Parmesan and a great deal of black pepper can transform a box of dried spaghetti. Because the only thing you can really do wrong with this sort of dish is to overcook the pasta. (The beauty of an iPhone is that it can time both your parking meter and your pot of linguine.)

So here are 45 recipes to choose from, starting with one from Osteria Mozza, a restaurant that’s not a bad place to go for a plate of pasta.

Linguine with clams, pancetta and chiles

Total time: 50 minutes | Serves 6

Note: Adapted from Matt Molina of Osteria Mozza. The ‘pesto’ recipe makes slightly more sauce than is needed for the pasta recipe.

RED CHILE ‘PESTO’

6 red jalapenos, coarsely chopped with seeds

1/2 red onion, diced

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup olive oil

In a food processor, coarsely puree the chiles, onion and salt. With the machine running, add the olive oil in a trickle to make a coarse sauce. Makes about 1 cup.

LINGUINE AND ASSEMBLY

1/4 cup olive oil

3/4 pound pancetta, diced

6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

3/4 cup red chile “pesto”

1/2 cup white wine

4 pounds manila clams, scrubbed

3/4 pound linguine

1/2 cup sliced Italian parsley

3/4 cup (loosely packed) sliced green onions

1. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil with the pancetta over medium heat and cook until the pancetta is crisp and lightly browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Drain off half of the rendered fat and add the garlic. Cook until it is light golden brown, 3 minutes. Stir in the red chile “pesto,” white wine and clams. Cover the pan and cook until all of the clams have opened, 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep warm.

2. While the clams are cooking, cook the pasta in a large pot of rapidly boiling, salted water until it is just al dente, 8 minutes.

3. Drain the pasta and add it to the clams. Place over high heat, ladle in one-half cup of the pasta cooking water and cook, stirring to mix well. Stir in the parsley and green onions over high heat; serve immediately.

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