Celebrate National Spaghetti Day with These 4 Insanely Delicious Pasta Recipes

Today is National Spaghetti Day, which means that it's time to pay your respects to the OG noodle.

The long, reliable starch is the perfect pasta sauce vessel, and one that has inspired professional and home cooks for centuries. We've compiled some of our favorite spaghetti recipes—some are fancy, some are fatty, and some are spicy, but all are delicious, as long as you respect the noodle.

So, don't you dare think about breaking uncooked noodles in half or overdoing it on the sauce. Just keep it simple, al dente, and unadulterated, and you'll be thanking the pasta gods for one of their most divine creations.

The egg, cheese, and pancetta magic that is carbonara was made for spaghetti, which is the ideal vehicle for all of that rich, decadent magic. But be warned: DO NOT USE CREAM.

If you really want to prove your love of spaghetti, you can make some homemade spaghetti alla Chitarra, which means "guitar" in Italian. These squared-off noodles are pushed through a set of strings that looks kind of like a guitar to get their shape, and, much like a guitar, this spicy dish fucking rocks.

Sure, spaghetti is ideal for heavier sauces like carbonara and Bolognese, but thin strands also make for a great conduit for lighter accompaniments like olive oil, mussels, clams, and little tomatoes.

This dish might look unusual, but a baked timballo casserole is actually pretty traditional in Italian kitchens. It's also a testament to the versatility of the spag. Plus, who wouldn't want a bunch of ham and cheese baked into one singularly extravagant dish and topped with marinara?

Make it and leave it in your fridge. There is no better hangover mop.

Happy National Spaghetti Day! If there's one thing that can serve as a reprieve from the craziness of the world, it's our old friend spaghetti.