I tried 3 pasta-sauce hacks from chef Alex Guarnaschelli, and they were all deliciously easy

• Celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli shared three simple pasta-sauce hacks with Business Insider.
• The recipes used garlic, sour cream, and tomatoes as bases, and the hacks were all great. 
• My favorite was the tomato-based sauce, but I’ll be making them all again. 

Pasta is my favorite thing to eat, and I don’t think I’m the only one. As of September, the North American pasta industry is forecast to grow at a rate of 4.1% over the next eight years.

But because it’s my favorite meal, I’m often stuck in a rut of making the same recipes over and over. 

Luckily, I spoke to celebrity chef and Food Network star Alex Guarnaschelli, who recommended three pasta-sauce hacks that sounded easy and delicious.

I knew I had to try them out for myself. 

Editor’s note: Alex Guarnaschelli was promoting a partnership with ZENB pasta at the time of the interview.

The first pasta sauce involved sautéed garlic and a few other kitchen staples

I started by boiling my favorite noodles in one pot while sautéing some freshly minced garlic in another.

In a bowl off to the side, I zested about half of a lemon and grated some Parmesan.

I added the pasta to my bowl and drizzled on some extra-virgin olive oil along with flaky salt and black pepper.

I finished my noodles with EVOO, but Guarnaschelli said you can also use a nut-based oil, like walnut or hazelnut oil, for a twist.

I loved the contrasting flavors of this sauce

I’ve never made a pasta sauce with sour cream, and I was both worried and intrigued by warming it up as a base. But I had faith Guarnaschelli wouldn’t steer me wrong.

Her tips for this sauce were, again, very customizable depending on taste preferences and what you have on hand.

“You can melt a container of sour cream in a pan gently and throw anything in there: some spices, chopped-up herbs, grated lemon zest, lime zest, shrimp, nuts,” she told Business Insider. “Then add the hot pasta right in. So delicious, so good, so easy.”

I boiled my pasta in one pot while I let the sour cream warm up over a low flame in another. I also made sure to stir the sour cream frequently to prevent any burning or crusting. 

Just before the pasta was done, I stirred the seasonings, cheese, herbs, and lemon zest into the sour cream. Then, I drained the pasta, added the sauce, and stirred until all of the noodles were coated.

I was surprised by how much I loved this sauce

Guarnaschelli’s third sauce hack involved cooking a few cherry tomatoes with pasta water, Parmesan, Dijon mustard, and balsamic.

This is a great recipe to use up random things in your fridge before they go bad.

I used Guarnaschelli’s cooking tip to help the sauce bind better to the pasta

This sauce hack might be my favorite.

I don’t always like tomatoes in my pasta, but they were balanced out with the mustard and balsamic.

The dish had such depth of flavor — a ton of umami — and the texture was awesome. The noodles were perfectly al dente from cutting their boil time by a minute and letting them cook in the sauce, and the sauce coated the noodles in a super silky way.

This method was a lot different from my normal pasta sauces, and I can’t wait to add it to my regular rotation.

With simple ingredients and little effort, these hacks completely upgraded my favorite meal

The third hack — with tomatoes, Dijon, and balsamic — was my favorite of the three. But I definitely plan to add all of them to my regular rotation of pasta sauces.

I love that no matter how many times I make each one, I’ll never get bored with the flavors because I can mix up the seasonings, ratios, and fresh ingredients depending on my mood and what I have in my fridge or pantry.

This story was originally published in February 2021 and most recently updated on October 14, 2024. 

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