Rich Pasta for the Poor Kitchen

This is a very good recipe I found after seeing something similar on tv. To simplify it further, you can cook your noodles, drain them and reserve a little bit of the noodle water in your final serving dish. To that water add your butter, spices, and the refrigerated garlic. Now mix in the still hot pasta and your leafy green thing of choice (I use either a little raw basil or a lot of raw spinach depending) into the buttery mix. The leaves wilt and the butter melts and you can toss it in its final serving dish. Cheese can go in now, or later on the side at the table (I use asiago, a little goes a long way and it keeps forever).

This was one of the first recipes I got from this site, and I have been making it for about 5 or 6 years. It is a very basic recipe that can be served with almost any meat dish---I like to pair it with grilled chicken breasts. Thanks for the great recipe!

Easy, simple and humble, a “take for granted” pasta dish that has been a staple in my diet my whole life. (And, I suspect, that of many other Italians as well) I like a combination of olive oil and butter and don't find it necessary to measure anything. Cook to taste, adding some reserved, starchy, pasta cooking water if necessary to make this creamy and moist, particularly if you toss the pasta with the cheese before serving rather than sprinkling it on upon serving.

I loved this! It was great! We didn't use as much garlic though, and I added two cups of water and some mozzerella (shredded) to it too and it was fantastic! The hubby and I were both starving, and not wanting to spend a lot of time on dinner, and the weather being so hot, it was perfect, simple, and tasted great! I will definitely make this again!

This is a very simple yet delicious recipe. The only real change I made (and it's an addition, not really a change) is to toast some fresh bread crumbs (I keep a bag of them in the freezer) and sprinkle them on top. I may add some sliced green onions and chopped fresh tomatoes as suggested by another reviewer next time I make it. Definitely use freshly grated Parmesana Reggiano for the best results. Thanks for the recipe!

It's ok

i liked this

Very good. I have made this and added chopped roma tomatoes and a dash of olive oil. Then, also, I have added chopped tomatoes and heavy cream to make a "pink pasta". Also, I love onions so I like to add a dash of onion powder.

This was very good, add some shrimp and you've got a great spaghetti scampi. I didn't add shrimp, but I did add about 1 1/2 cups of frozen peas for a little color and texture. Hubby said he didn't think the peas were going to work, but they did. Thanks for a recipe with ingredients that just about every pantry has available.

SO FABULOUS! I didn't even have the fresh parsley, but this tastes straight out of a delicious restaurant! LOVE IT! Thanks so much for the recipe. Can't wait to try it again with parsley.

I have been making this for years. This is a great stand-by for a quick dinner or even a sidedish. I don't normally add tomatoes but I will give that a try. Thanks.

I only put half the garlic and it was still very garlicy.

On nights my boyfriend cooks I try to find simple recipes for him to make. This recipe was perfect, simple ingredients with easy steps that result in big taste. Its easy to add anything to or good the way it is.

You can never go wrong with this simple, comforting, yummy pasta dish! I sometimes use other pasta shapes, depending on what I have on hand. This makes a great main or side dish. I also prefer to use crushed pepper flakes in place of the cayenne. The butter makes this rich and delicious! Thanks for sharing. :)

This is really good! I like how simple it is and the flavors taste great!

My family and I loved it! And it's sooo simple that I was able to make it, and I am only 13.

Made it as a quick side dish. Saved time by just adding all ingredients to hot pot that I cooked the pasta in and poured the hot pasta back in. Subbed red pepper flakes for cayenne pepper.

I couldn't find my recipe for this which was called spaghetti alfredo. The only difference was 1/4 cup of milk. Since I was out of milk, I followed this recipe. Just as good! Makes an excellent side dish.

Just the thing you need when you get home at 2:00am (working 2nd shift), and you don't have a lot of time to whip up something tasty ;)

My pasta came out very dry and bland.

So simple and so good!

this was quite good! i didn't change anything. My husband was dubious when I was making it but then agreed that it was a good dish for something so simple and cheap to make.

My picky daughter said it's the best thing she has ever tasted!!! Thank you for this easy and yummy recipe.

I made this tonight and it was great! It far succeeded my expectations. I only made a slight change to it, first, I didn't use real butter. I used "Parkay" no calorie spray, and I seasoned with some garlic salt as well. You don't miss a bit of taste and this hugely cuts down on the fat and calories. I used the garlic salt because I just wanted to give it a bit more flavor, but even without it, it still would have tasted good. While these are good enough to eat by themselves, I served mine under chicken parmesan and it was delicious. I have found a new recipe for what's sure to be a constant side dish of mine.

This has now become a staple recipe for us- so easy to make and sooo yummy!

Love the garlic flavor in this recipe and of course the butter! Was great with our steak tonight!

A great recipe! French bread with cheese and butter is a delicious addition! The only thing I did differently was leaving out the parsely because I didn't have any at the moment and it still tasted just as wonderful to those weary of the idea. Thank you for this recipe, easy to make and family loved it!

I love it, it came out creamy and delicious.

The flavors are wonderful, but a tad too much butter for my taste. I actually put 3/4 of the butter the recipe recommended, and it was still too oily for my taste. The fresh parsley is a must!

Love this!

A version of this was a staple at our house growing up. Mom made it for us when she was cooking something that Dad liked but us kids wouldn't eat. She just tossed cooked spaghetti in melted butter and added grated Parmesan to taste in our bowls for each of us. We loved it. I think it was easier for her to make this specially for us than argue all through dinner trying to get us to eat what she cooked for Dad. This is a bit more sophisticated with the garlic and cayenne. But leave those out (salt and black pepper are optional), and add as little or as much cheese as the kids want. I still make this for myself when I'm dining alone. These ingredients are always on hand at our house.

This is 5 stars because it is a favorite of my kids. I leave out the cayenne and I use garlic powder so they won't see the pieces of garlic if making for them and use less butter just a scoop is enough for them. Great side dish!

5 stars. This dish was awesome! So simple yet so good.

I'll put it this way: my mother thought that it tasted a little fishy, but said it was "ok", while my boyfriend polished off his entire serving and then some. I'm averaging their ratings. For the record, my boyfriend has no idea how my mother thought it tasted "fishy". I think this recipe is a matter of taste, so I recommend that you know your crowd.

I need to say thank you to Vampyrelady who posted this and also to a couple of reviewers who had suggestions. I finally have created a wonderful FAST pasta that sticks to the noodles! Using some of the pasta water was the best tip! I want to post my own pasta combination with a recipe of what I did exactly in the future. Basically I used about 3/4c pasta water, olive oil & some butter, stewed tomatoes cut up, capers, green onions, sliced chicken, then finished with romano and feta cheese on top with the basic recipe printed here. The BEST! Thanks SO much for helping me create an entree that would cost $20+ al a carte' in the best Italian bistro's!!!! I'll make this often!

I'm a garlic sissy, so I only used a couple of cloves finely minced. I tossed the parmesan cheese into the pasta before removing it from the skillet and let it warm slightly before serving. Use the best parmesan cheese you can to have a good result.

Very easy and quick. It went well with the parmesan crusted tilapia we had for lunch (recipe on this site). I prefer a little less butter and a little more garlic--I cut down the butter by half and it was still a bit too buttery. I also made the butter coating in hte same pot I made the pasta in. It was perfect--already hot, so it didn't need reheating to melt the butter. Thanks for the recipe!

I call this my "Single Girl Pasta." It is my go-to dinner when my husband is gone for the night and I have to cook for one. It's easy, fast, and heavenly calorie-ridden, which is perfectly paired with nights where you can't imagine doing much more than sitting on the couch and catching up on your shows. Aside from that, it's also very inexpensive, yet extremely tasty, and could be really impressive for guests (if you add chicken) or as a side dish. Yum!!

Really beautifully done. I loved this start for a recipe. I added fake crab meat and shrimp for some protein once I added the pasta and let it cook for a few minutes. I also added fresh leaks with the butter and garlic in the beginning before I added other seasonings. I let it cook over med-high while the pasta cooked. I also added olive oil. It was a touch buttery but tasted fantastic! This recipe I will definitely make again!

my family LOVED this we like to have meatless nights/weeks and this was a great dish it was easy and had great flavor I think next time we will try some shrimp or chicken in it! (when we are not meat free)

I've only used olive oil, which is healthier,to make this and will try with the parmesan cheese next time. Lots of pepper is essential. I often serve it with baked buffalo chicken wings.

Very good. Used olive instead of butter and spinach pasta. Also added chopped tomatoes.

This is a great dish for when you're broke, feeling lazy, or if nothing else sounds goods, a simple bowl of noodles will usually hit the spot. I simplify it by tossing cooked noodles with butter, garlic powder, and parmesan. This is a dish I would eat when I was pregnant and knew I had to eat something, but couldn't stomach anything else. Try a mix of butter and olive oil for added flavor.

this is a true basic italian staple! you can do almost any thing to this pasta dish!....i use olive oil sometimes instead of butter i also toss in whatever i have on hand to make it a fancier dish in a pinch...diced tomatoes, onions and sliced black olives are my faves...my grandma used to throw in a can of mushrooms...you really can't go wrong here you can also substitute basil for the parsley!

This is such a wonderful, basic recipe for delicious pasta that will go with anything. The only change I made was to add some olive oil because I used much less butter. That was because of our age, not necessarily because of the taste. If I were still young it would have been butter all the way!!! This is nice and simple & so fresh tasting. All one needs is meat or fish and some veggies to make this a wonderful complete meal. Thanks for the recipe!

What a great easy recipe! I added some heavy cream and diced tomatoes and it was fantastic!

The kids love this but it was to rich for me.

I too was a member of the poor kitchen club and I used to make this dish always, add tomatoes it's the best! Also can be made with rice~

This is fabulous. I always add a tablespoon of lemon juice for some acid and a can of chicken breast if my husband's around. I also add dried basil if I don't have any fresh herbs on hand.

This was good and I really liked how little time it was prepared in. I followed the other reviewers' suggestions and added some chopped Roma tomatoes, it was easy and tasted great.

I made it with linguine instead of spaghetti. Very good recipe!

This is really good! My five year old gobbled it up, and he doesn't like pasta. He then again ate the leftovers for lunch the next day, and he doesn't like leftovers either. Big hit! I did not have fresh parsley and used dry, I didn't use cayenne pepper since we don't like spicy foods, and I didn't have parmesan so I used mozzarella instead, worked fine. :)

My mom always made this for me as a girl, now I make it for my kids and they love it. My oldest asks for it all of the time.

We have used a form of this for 45 years. Sometimes I stir in spinach, basil, sunflower seeds or bacon bits, or any combo of them. Garlic is a must! For breakfast I beat eggs and stir them into the leftover spaghetti mix in the frying pan with more butter.

This recipe is great. I followed the recipe exactly, choosing to leave out the optional cayenne pepper. The only thing I added was a generous sprinkling of Italian seasoning. Tastes great with either fresh Parmesan cheese or the refrigerated kind. You can also eat it warm or cold. I served this with the Italian Style Meatloaf 1 recipe from this site. Husband also gives it five stars (he loved the garlic and cheese tastes).

This is a good, quick, easy recipe; extremely versatile (add whatever you have on hand & whatever spices you prefer; you almost can't mess it up!) and its oh so simple. My younger brother used to eat his spaghetti this way for years; use bite-sized pasta (penne, rotini, etc) & don't make it too spicy and it's absolutely perfect for children. Personally, I prefer my spaghetti with marinara and/or lots of veggies...but this is a good pasta side dish, or a nice quick dinner in a pinch.

Nice, you can toss in some cream and turn this into an alfredo sauce too. Adding a bit of olive oil will help keep the butter and garlic from cooking too quickly.

it was OK.. too much cheese && much to bland...

Great simple recipe. I used only about 2 TBSP of butter with another 2 TBSP olive oil.

You'd be amazed at how such a simple recipe could turn out soooo good. I added diced tomatoes and green onions to the top for some color, and used fresh parmesan cheese. A keeper!!!

I'm convinced the ingredient list has an error. There's no such thing as a 6-oz. package of dry spaghetti. It should be 16 oz. Also intuitively militating for this correction are those 8 tablespoons of butter, supposedly to dress those 6 oz. of spaghetti. That's an entire stick of butter for 6 oz. of pasta! Way too much. Imagine scaling up the recipe, proportionately, as published, to 1 lb. of spaghetti. At the rate currently indicated in the recipe, you'd be dressing it with 21 and 1/3 tablespoons of butter, equivalent to 2 and 2/3 sticks of butter! Not plausible. Moreover, the stated 6 oz. of spaghetti, if divided among those 4 stated servings, would yield servings of 1½ ounces each. That might suffice as a small side dish, but not as a main dish. Yet this recipe seems to be offered as an entrée. If you correct the amount of spaghetti to a pound, it's a decent recipe. Try it! (But do reserve some cooking water for loosening things up, as needed.)

Mixed opinions in my house. I liked it, but my husband said he would not have this again. We brainstormed and determined that maybe dried tomatoes and lemon zestt could add a little more to this. We love garlic and this was too much. We also didn't have fresh parsley and used dried. It definitely needs to be fresh. Thanks.

This is a great cheap meal! I would recommend using less butter to save calories and I thought it was a bit oily anyways. The next time I will use between 4-6 tablespoons of butter. Overall VERY tasty and fulfilling.

I was expecting this to be good but it was excellent. I added more garlic cuz I love it! It is too easy to make yet it tastes like a million dollars. This will be a new fav of mine!

Easy,fast,and cheap!The kids actually loved it and cleaned their plates!

A big hit!! Really tasty!

My husband and I love this recipe. Great to make along with a salad for a light dinner.

This recipe was AMAZING!!! My husband loved it. I made it as a side dish with a steak and some corn. My husband suggested that next time I should make it with shrimp. Anyway, it was very very good! I brought it into work the next day and my sister gobbled it all up!

I used one and a half tablespoons of minced garlic which was plenty. I used Kosher salt instead of table. I kept the rest of the original recipe the same. I threw in some leftover steamed broccoli and, voila, dinner! I would agree with some that the amount of butter used could have been reduced. I "lifted" the spaghetti out of the pan to let some of it drip off before setting it in the serving bowl. Nonetheless, my family loved it. The green-phobics picked off the broccoli and then everyone was happy!

I don't use the parsley but if I have one on hand I squeeze fresh lemon juice into the butter and some capers right before adding in the pasta. Basic and delish!

If my mother-in-law hadn't beat "every meal has to have meat" into my husband, this would've been a great dinner. My kids and I liked it. I ran out of garlic, so used garlic salt, green beans on the side. Tasted great.

I've made this recipe several times, and have passed it on. It's so good! I have modified it a bit per the other reviews. I add a lot of freshly diced tomato (I love tomato). I add a splash of heavy cream and a bit of cornstarch to make a bit more of a sauce, and do more garlic and spices than called for.. Overall, it's delcious.

Wonderful - all I added was a little more garlic as we are crazy for it. Will add fresh tomatoes this summer, and maybe try fresh basil too. Excellent!!

Really great easy recipe, made it with left over pasta and added some broccoli and marinated chicken breast. Great for late night study hunger !

This is a really versatile dish, and is delicious to boot! Add some veggies when you're tossing the pasta and its healthy(ish) too!

Excellent and quick side dish. Finally tried this tonight for something different. Great if you like garlic. Nice thing about this dish is you really could add anything to it and make it the main meal -- besides tomatoes maybe broccoli or other veggies or even pepperoni?? I'm sure the list of additions could go on.....

This is used so consistently in our house. There are those days when I get home after teaching and just don't want to put forth much energy into dinner. This is the old stand-by with some grilled chicken or mayble some griled shrimp. Definate keeper. Thanks.

This was pretty good and I already had all the ingredients on hand so it did live up to it's name. We used whole wheat pasta and Smart Balance to make it a bit healthier.

My boyfriend and I really enjoyed this, it came out way better than we expected! I added a ladle full of the pasta water into the sauce as others suggested and I think that helped wrap the flavors around the pasta better. Thanks!

This was a quick, easy, tasty recipe. My only critique is that it was a bit too much garlic, but that's an easy fix for next time. Great with parmesan on top. Thanks!

I'm not much of a pasta fan but my kids and hubby love it. I don't like thick, heavy sauces and was looking for something new. I didn't have fresh garlic on hand so i used garlic powder instead and I used a ground pepper blend instead of just black pepper. This recipe was a hit with everyone in the family, including myself. Will definitely be making this one again but will make sure i have fresh garlic on hand for that extra flavour!

I think the recipe should have been 16 oz box of noodles, as there was a lot of butter left behind. Otherwise, it was a quick meal and eaten by the kids.

Really great simple recipe. I had to substitute gluten free pasta and all I had was elbows. I decided to blister some grape tomatoes in a little olive oil to add. It was fabulous!!!!

Added some cannellini beans for protein. Went heavy on garlic, parm, salt, and parsley. Deliciously rich.

This was good but....I was tempted to add some heavy cream to turn this into an Alfredo sauce but I didn't. I think giving it a "4" may be a bit too generous but it was easy to prepare.

What a simple addition to our meal, and had leftovers for another meal. Delicious!

As near as I can tell, I made this according to the recipe. I cut it down to 1 serving. I didn't have fresh parsley so I used dried parsley flakes. I've had this before in a restaurant and fell in love with it. This recipe is definitely on a par with the restaurant version! It has an incredible amount of flavor and I really like the cayenne with it. It was quick and easy. I will definitely continue to make this. Thank you for the submission.

Ive always made this with just parmesan and brown butter. I think it's called Greek spaghetti. Delish!

I just tried this recipe and it's delicious. I added 1/2T more minced garlic than the recipe called for and tossed the pasta with some sour cream to give it a little "zing." Fabulous!

This was pretty good and incredibly easy. I had some leftover chicken so I threw that in too. I'm a parsley freak so I put way more in than was asked for. I had everything on hand though so it was a good quick dinner.

Turned out pretty good.

Made it for two and was fantastic. I guess if you wish you can give it a kick by adding a bit of lemon juice and grated lemon rind for a lemon twist. Will make it again; however, next time, I will use the best salted butter I can find.

Add fresh squeezed lemon for some tang. Yummy.

I didn't have any pasta sauce so this was perfect! I didn't use the parsley but I added one chopped roma tomato that I sauteed. It was really good! The cayenne papper gives it a good taste 👍

better than what I get in a restaurant. I added mushrooms and shrimp. throw in your favorite veggies and protein

Very good!

A simple yet satisfying way to have pasta. I am not feeling well today and wanted to keep cooking basic and easy. This recipe caught my eye and I just had to try it. I did use fresh parsley and oregano from my garden and the later was the only change that I made. I think that next time I'll throw in more creativity and add some tomatoes, mushrooms and maybe even some shrimp. This one is a keeper for me. Thanks!

A whole stick of butter! Of course it tastes good. I couldn't bring myself to use that much butter.

No I did not make any changes.Fantastice