National Spaghetti Day is here! The swirliest and most wonderful pasta of them all has been given its day, and if you're a pasta lover, you should celebrate. Because spaghetti is so often married to meatballs, we're offering five amazing, flavor-packed alternatives. These dishes take a little more effort than the average pasta with canned sauce dinner, but they're absolutely in a league of their own.
Not all of these recipes are specifically for spaghetti, but we invite you to make them with spaghetti anyway to honor this wonderful "holiday."
Lemon-Arugula Pasta from Martha Stewart. This dish is clean, simple, and so fresh. The arugula's color stands out against the pasta, adding brightness for the eyes and the taste buds, and goes magically with lemon zest and tons of grated pecorino cheese.
Creamy Pappardelle with Leeks and Bacon from Bon Appetit. This dish is the ultimate in grownup comfort food. The leeks provide sweetness and brightness that hold up to the bold bacon flavor and the amazing creaminess of the sauce.
Linguine with Colatura from NYT Food. Colatura di Alici is not easy to find, but if you do, it's absolutely worth it. It's a fermented fish sauce from Italy made with anchovies that will add intense flavor to anything. Here, it's the star of the pasta dish, accompanied by parsley, lemon, salt, pepper, and olive oil.
Slow Cooked Ragu with Spaghetti from RecipeTin Eats. If you're dying for that classic "red" flavor to go with your spaghetti, upgrade your normal meat sauce with this Ragu recipe. Ragu is a meat sauce that's made with slow cooked brisket and tons of seasoning. The thin strands of brisket will intertwine with the spaghetti, showing that harmony is possible and that the world is good.
Pasta with Sea Urchin and Caviar from Popsugar. If you want to take spaghetti to unprecedentedly elegant heights, go with this dish that incorporates sea urchin and a big dollop of caviar. It's adapted from an Eric Ripert standard, so you know it'll showcase the magic of the sea - and that it's going to be amazing.
