Super-Flavorful Vegetarian Pastas

This amazingly flavorful pesto has a key ingredient that makes it stand out: Sicily’s famed pistachio nuts. Frank Falcinelli says, “Sicilian pistachios are incredibly sweet and fruity, not like the cheap ones we eat in front of the TV here in the U.S.”

Torn pieces of burrata are tossed into the orecchiette just after it’s cooked so the cheese melts ever so slightly into the pasta, which is laced with chunks of tender, smoky eggplant.

This pasta is an ode to the mountains of fried zucchini Gwyneth Paltrow ate at Elio's, an Italian restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side, growing up. Here, she adds the crispy zucchini slices to spaghetti that's tossed with shredded Parmesan cheese (which adds texture to the dish) and plenty of olive oil and basil.

Pair this quick pasta with a fruit-forward Pinot Gris.

This Mediterranean dish from Marcie Turney is quick, simple and utterly delicious.

Succulent little cherry tomatoes know no season, so you can enjoy this fresh-tasting no-cook pasta sauce any time of year. Marinate the tomatoes for at least the time it takes to boil the water and cook the fettuccine; the longer you let them sit, the better the sauce will be.

Eggplant is sautéed in olive oil until it's creamy soft and then tossed with pasta and cheese. A quick stint under the broiler melts the fontina and browns the top.

A little bit of cheese can add a lot of flavor to a healthy recipe. Marcia Kiesel tops this linguine with a scattering of crumbled feta, which melts on the warm pasta to give the dish a creamy tang.

Jere and Emilee Gettle love the Green Zebra tomato, which is as sweet as red ones but with a citrusy tang. They toss it with yellow tomatoes for a colorful, uncooked pasta sauce.

Parsley, rather than the traditional basil, makes this pesto a year-round staple. Because the taste of almonds is more delicate than that of the usual pine nuts, we have chopped rather than ground them. Their flavor really comes through when you bite in to a nutty chunk.

At her restaurant, Amanda Cohen tosses herb fettuccine with pickled squash blossoms and grilled zucchini. This simplified recipe features squash that's pickled and then grilled, plus freshly sautéed squash.

Ravioli can be prepared over two days in advance. Mix the filling on day one, store it in the fridge overnight, then make the dough and assemble the ravioli the next day.

Because it's baked, this pasta takes a bit longer from kitchen to table than other dishes in this book. You'll find the preparation time, though, is just as short as that of any other recipe here.

Roasting vegetables at a high temperature caramelizes them, making them intensely flavorful. You may think of roasting as a long process, but we cut each of the vegetables into small cubes or thin slices so they need only thirty minutes in the oven.

Cream cheese is the secret ingredient in this luscious baked pasta.

This hearty pasta dish will quickly become your new favorite lunch.

In this decadent lasagna, store-bought fresh pasta sheets are layered with wild mushrooms in a creamy wine sauce.

Tossed with sweet acorn squash and roasted tomatoes, this whole wheat pasta from Eric Chopin is packed with fiber and vitamins A and C. Olives and toasted pine nuts add heart-healthy fats.

Chefs love showcasing the intensely earthy flavor of buckwheat in rich, luxurious dishes. , Matthew Accarrino tosses buckwheat pasta with creamy mascarpone, silky mushrooms and runny eggs.

“The first time I picked up a rolling pin in front of ladies who’ve made pasta every day for the past 30 years, I was nervous as hell, ” says chef Thomas McNaughton.

Bill Telepan’s fresh free-form ravioli are filled with broccoli and cheese, then boiled and baked until crisp at the edges.

Andrew Carmellini cooks homemade gnocchi in his own intense mushroom stock, then serves them with porcini butter (blended with garlic, herbs and Parmesan) and white-truffle shavings. To simplify the recipe, use store-bought gnocchi and chicken stock fill in for the homemade kinds. The topping: Parmesan cheese and truffle oil.

Here's one of the quickest pesto sauces you'll come across. It's a perfect match for cheese tortellini, but you can use other tortellini such as mushroom or meat instead. The pesto is also great with just about any plain pasta.

Hear the name ravioli nudi—literally, naked ravioli—and you may envision little sauceless pasta packets, but in fact it's not the sauce that's missing, but the pasta itself. Ravioli filling, in this case spinach and ricotta, is simmered like tender little dumplings. To save time, buy precleaned spinach from the salad bar.

Vegetables play an important role in the cuisine of India, and cauliflower and peas are a favorite combination. Here Italian orecchiette catches the peas and the sauce so that each bite is full of flavor.

Meaty mushrooms are enhanced by sweet caramelized onions and just enough tangy melted goat cheese in this delicious year-round pasta.

We've added sautéed mushrooms to the classic—and very simple—spaghetti with garlic and oil, but the dish can still be made in no time at all. Regular white mushrooms are excellent here; portobellos or wild mushrooms would be great, too.

The delectably rich-tasting sauce that clings to each strand of fettuccine here requires no cooking. Just combine goat cheese, Parmesan, milk, and some of the still-hot pasta-cooking water, and it's done.

Tomato sauce, silky fried eggplant, and salted ricotta come together to create something that is more than the sum of its parts.

A classic browned butter and sage sauce gets a boost of fall flavor from pumpkin butter.

Scott Conant’s recipe makes for the perfect quick and easy weeknight pasta.

This pasta is comforting but light, adding a fresh squeeze of lemon juice in at the end complements the fennel well and gives a slightly sharp taste to the creaminess of the sauce.

Marc Vetri sautés cauliflower and brussels sprouts with onion, garlic, anchovies and herbs until they're charred and flavorful, then tosses them with long, thick strands of bucatini. (You can easily omit the anchovies if you like.)