36 Winter Pastas for Feeling Cozy No Matter the Temperature

It’s officially cold outside, the holidays have kicked in, and for some of us, the seasonal affective disorder might be hitting hard. You know what that means: It's time for comfort food. Some nights, you just have to accept that the best way to keep warm and happy is a big plate of pasta and maybe a glass or two of wine.

For those nights—the ones when you need a pasta-focused pick me up—we’ve got more than enough recipes to get you through the cold and the darkness. These pasta recipes range from the simple to the soigné, but they all celebrate the humble noodle and the multitude of rich sauce blankets available within the Italian carb canon.

With only three ingredients, cacio e pepe is a crash course in the magic of turning pasta water into silky, cheesy sauce. If you've got a block of cheese in the fridge and some pepper left in the grinder, you're only 15 minutes away from one of the most comforting dishes ever.

If there’s one thing Italians take seriously, it’s adherence to traditional pasta recipes, and we’ll be damned if we let cream anywhere near our carbonara. Switch out the bacon and cream for guanciale and egg yolks, and you’ll know why there's only one acceptable way to make this classic dish.

Double the cheese and add a splash of soy sauce for an extra kick of umami that'll come just shy of knocking you out. There's still no cream in this carbonara, though; some rules just can't be broken.

The sauce in chef Michael White's version of the perfect pasta carbonara is enriched with a mixture of Parmesan and pecorino romano, because there's never a reason to complain about extra cheese.

Nothing says old-school comfort pasta like spaghetti and meatballs. This version is Italian American cooking in its purest form, and it will make you want to buy red-and-white checkered tablecloths and drink wine from little glasses while Frank Sinatra croons softly in the background.

Need something more hearty than spaghetti and meatballs? It’s been known to happen, and lasagna is the most reliable prescription. This beef lasagna from Matty Matheson weighs about 10 pounds—three pounds of which are mozzarella cheese—by the time it’s ready for the oven.

If you love the crispy corners of a big lasagna but hate the fact that there are never enough of them, these beef lasagna roll-ups are for you. This popular recipe from New York City's Don Angie results in the perfect ratio of cheese, meat sauce, and lightly crispy noodle edges in every bite.

Got five minutes? Good, then you’ve got enough time to assemble this easy pasta with Parmesan cheese, butter, and garlic. It's best consumed in the dead of winter in front of a laptop screen, while scrolling through video-on-demand choices for half an hour.

If you’re going to break with tradition, then make it count, just as pasta pro Missy Robbins does with her savory kugel recipe. This baked interpretation of cacio e pepe has mascarpone, pecorino, and ricotta cheese, and kugel purists will gladly look the other way as they eat it out of the baking pan.

This definitely isn't a 30-minute meal, but if you’re looking for an excuse to stay in, look no further than this homemade garganelli with lamb Bolognese. It’s about four hours from start to finish, during which you can drink all the wine and listen to all the podcasts in your safe place while everything freezes outside.

“So what? No fuckin' ziti?” are not words you ever want to hear when you’re cooking for loved ones. But once you’ve served them this ziti dish that’s fit for a mess hall, you will be expected to make it again and again and be forced to contend with the disappointment of others when you don’t.

Is there anything more consoling than penne with vodka sauce—not just food-wise, but in the universe in general? The answer is: not really. Not only is it luxurious and easy to make, but it’s the one pasta dish where taking shots of vodka during prep is entirely acceptable.

The secret to this comforting pasta dish is in the garnish. A mix of fennel, Thai basil, fresh chiles, and smoked ricotta bring the stewy tomato and eggplant sauce to life, and remind you that pasta can be whatever you want it to be.

"Vegan lasagna—surely, that can't be?" you ask. Not with that attitude. A little resourcefulness goes a long way in matters of cheese substitution, and the key to this vegan lasagna's dairy-free greatness is faux-mozzarella shreds and dairy-free ricotta.

With no roux required, this comforting mac and cheese is also really easy to make: it's just three cheeses melted into two cups of cream and blasted under the broiler for a few fateful minutes of crust creation. This is the wool blanket of pasta dishes.

Pistachios, spinach, basil, and lemon zest take center stage in this unconventional pesto pasta that will satisfy you but won't put you to sleep. The flavors in this dish are big, green, and perfect for a winter reset.

Briny, chewy clams are a perfect counterpoint to the acidity of white wine, tomatoes, and fresh herbs in this light seafood pasta. This simple recipe is full of perfect bites of seafood, tomatoes, and noodles that will allow you to brush up on your fork-twirling and seafood-picking skills.

Linguine with clams is classic, but sometimes you want something a little different. To wake yourself from your winter slumber, switch the dish up with some spice; chorizo and fresh red chiles are the move here.

If you don't know ricotta pansotti, you haven't really lived a fully actualized life. Pansotti is a pasta stuffed with mascarpone, Parmesan, and ricotta, and by some work of magic, these dumplings are so light and fluffy that you won't feel stuffed. Make the pesto with whatever you like—it might be a little early for stinging nettles—but you should definitely make your own pasta from scratch.

Fideos is the Spanish-inspired pasta dish you can make with whatever scraps you've got in your kitchen, like the tail end of that box of spaghetti you've been hanging onto for months, the herbs that are wilting in the crisper drawer, and whatever veggies you have hanging out in there, too.

Sometimes you wake up in the morning with a little voice in your head that says, "PASTA." Most of the time, you might tell yourself, "Pasta isn't a breakfast dish." But repeat after us: anything can be breakfast if you put an egg on it, and the next time that happens, make this breakfast pasta.

Our pal Meyhem Lauren showed us how to make this simple but flavorful shrimp and Henny pasta over on our How-To channel, if you're looking for a step-by-step tutorial.

Sure, you could just use some good, rustic bread to soak up all of the tomato sauce with your next shakshuka, but some thick rigatoni will do the job just as well.

Winter is as good a time as any to cue up Big Night and attempt to recreate the near monstrosity that is the signature dish of Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub's seaside New Jersey Italian restaurant: a giant baked timballo.

This rich, creamy almond pesto from acclaimed Philly pasta aficionado Marc Vetri relies on an unexpected kick of jalapeños to pay homage to local spicy food luminary Han Chiang of Han Dynasty.

This homemade ricotta cavatelli dish has all the flavors of your favorite roast pork sandwich—jus and rabe and all—but on a bed of fluffy pasta clouds, because comfort's what you need.

If you don't have it in you to make your own spaghetti alla chittara from scratch, some fat bucatini will do just fine in this super-savory clam and bottarga pasta dish.

This new classic from the masterminds at Manhattan's Don Angie is basically a grown-up version of your childhood spaghetti and meatballs that feels fancy enough to impress your friends at your next dinner party.

Everyone needs a solid meat sauce recipe in their repertoire, and this sub-two-hour take on a Bolognese should be yours.

Take the rich, beefy flavor of a slow-cooked Bolognese and pair it with the melty, crispy goodness of the best mac and cheese, and you've got this decadent baked Bolognese pasta that makes a second helping the obvious choice.

This ragu recipe from our good pal Matty Matheson will take all day to let all seven freaking pounds of meat braise, so keep this recipe in mind the next time you're snowed in for the weekend and looking to feed yourself for days.

Sweet kabocha squash and tender baby spinach are nicely blanketed in a creamy mornay sauce, pasta sheets, and plenty of mozzarella for a vegetarian lasagna that's as indulgent as the meat stuff.

Between the holidays and the bad weather and the 4 p.m. darkness, winter can be hard. Got a friend who's going through it (or maybe that "friend" is just you)? Make 'em a big tray of this mushroom lasagna and brighten their day a little bit, even if the rest of the season sucks.

Easy, cheesy, and hard to turn down, stuffed shells are the classic potluck dish that's also perfect for winter dinner parties. Even better, this recipe will have them done in under an hour.

The makings of your favorite diner sandwich are even better mixed with pasta and baked into a cheesy tuna casserole.

Curried goat with potato gnocchi is a uniquely personal dish for New Orleans-based chef Nina Compton, blending the goat curry of her childhood with the sweet potato gnocchi she learned as a professional cook. This recipe doesn't come together the quickest, but it's the perfect way to spend a weekend in.

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