Smoky pancetta in a spicy red wine & tomato sauce. What’s not to love. This is a super quick 30 minute meal that kids will love. It’s like a hug in a bowl. Perfect for those winter evenings where you just want a hearty bowl of pasta with cheese. You could obviously use bacon bits, if you can’t find pancetta and the red wine is optional, but it adds a lovely depth flavour.

Who doesn’t love spaghetti and meatballs? I don’t know what it is about this dinner but I just find it way more exciting than spaghetti bolognese, even though it’s very similar ingredients. This is a really kid friendly meal as I have blended the sauce and snuck in some veggies. This is also perfect for meal prep, as this amount yields about 6-8 servings (depending on how many meatballs you want to eat!). This is a great family friendly recipe that everyone will love.

This is a lovely fresh & creamy summer dish. I wanted to keep it light so I didn’t put meat in this but I think some crispy pan fried salmon flaked through would be really delicious and complement the creamy lemon and pesto sauce.

This is by no means an ‘authentic’ Satay recipe, but it’s quick, packed with nutty flavour and creamy in texture. It’s a perfect fakeaway meal when you are craving a Chinese takeaway. It really hits the spot. I used egg noodles for this recipe, but you could easily use rice noodles either and it would be really tasty too. As always you can sub out the chicken for tofu or any other protein. You can also really add whatever veg you want to this dish. I had mushrooms, onion & red pepper to hand but some Chinese cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots, broccoli or bok choi would also be a lovely addition.

While I am a spice lover, I’m so aware that not everyone wants a chilli laden dinner every evening. This stir-fry has loads of flavour from the 5 spice & ginger, without being spicy and has a lovely sweetness from the honey and vegetables. You can really sub in any vegetables you like, but I love classic stir-fry veg such as peppers, onion, mangetout, baby corn etc. This stir-fry is also lovely with rice, though it’s not a sauce heavy stir-fry, it more coats the chicken and vegetables.

This was the meal of my childhood. It’s so versatile as you can eat it with pasta, use the sauce as a lasagne base sauce or even have it with baked potatoes. Every family has their own way to make spaghetti bolognese and here is our family bolognese sauce. The measurements aren’t exact, so if you fancy more or less of any of these flavours, bolognese is one of those dishes that you really don’t have to be precise with. This meal comes in at under 600 calories for a bowl of hearty spag bol, no Dolmio in sight!

Creamy and indulgent this is a veggie dish to leave you feeling moreish. Who doesn’t like a big bowl of creamy, tomato pasta with loads of grated cheese and herbs. It’s comfort food in a bowl, but since we aren’t using cream it’s light and summery, the perfect meal to eat outside with a glass of wine.

This pasta dish gives me real ‘penne alla vodka’ vibes, without the double cream. This dish is really creamy, spicy and hearty. Nduja adds the heat to this dish. It is a spreadable spicy Italian sausage that can be hard to find. I generally get it in SuperValu (if you live in Ireland) and it’s in the fridge section beside the pudding, sausages and cured meats. If you can’t find this you could add a tbsp of chilli flakes and some chorizo before serving. A little goes a long way. It’s so good with rigatoni or penne in my opinion as the sauce goes into the holes of the pasta, meaning you get little pockets of sauce. Mop up the leftover sauce with some ciabatta or focaccia and you have the ultimate pasta dish.

Pasta Arrabbiata is a spicy Italian sauce from the Lazio region in Italy. While not traditional, I love adding a little onion & some black olives to mine. This pasta sauce can be served using any pasta you like, but I just love to serve this with a short noodle such as a fusilli or a penne. You can reduce the spiciness if you like by adding less chilli flakes, so be warned as I like to pack on the heat.

Don’t be fooled by the apparent lack of sauce with this pasta dish. This meal is packed with flavour and punch from the lemon zest & juice. It is the perfect meal for coming in to the warmer weather (finally!). It would be the perfect meal with some garlic bread and a summer salad. I used gigli as my pasta noodle of choice, but you can use whatever noodle/pasta you wish.

This is the ultimate dinner with a nice chilled glass of white and a movie. Nicely spiced and loaded with flavour from the roasted garlic & tomatoes. It’s well worth taking the extra time to roast the garlic & tomatoes as it makes the really sweet and jammy.

Breaded chicken AND pasta combined is a match made in heaven. This pasta sauce is delicious on it’s own without the chicken, as a lovely vegetarian meal in itself, which we eat regularly in our house. The trick is to slow cook the sauce down so it’s thick and coats the pasta and the black olives add a lovely saltiness to the sauce. You could totally make this chicken in the airfryer or oven too, to reduce the calories.

This dish is actually Tagliatelle alla Norcina, but I knew nobody would know what that actually meant so I created my own no-explanation needed name. This dish is traditionally from the Umbria region in southern Italy, famous for it’s pork meats and truffles. This dish is traditionally served with a tube like pasta such as a rigatoni pasta, but I love how the silky creamy sauce coats the tagliatelle too. I couldn’t find Norcia sausage in Ireland, so using high quality local pork sausage is essential. I wanted to sneak in some veggies into this dish too, so I added a packet of chestnut mushrooms.

This is a super quick and easy pasta dish that can be thrown together in the length of time it takes to cook your pasta. This is a great veggie dinner that is on regular rotation in our house, as we are trying to cut back on our meat consumption. We usually have this with some crusty bread and a side salad with mixed leaves and a balsamic & olive oil dressing.

With the winter fast approaching we all need a bowl of comfort food. This is a lovely Italian classic, rich and creamy, without the heavy cream. The sauce is emulsified from the starchy pasta water with egg & cheese,. This is pretty close to an “authentic” Italian carbonara. The key to this dish is seasoning, as there are so few ingredients so remember lots of black pepper, plenty of salt in your pasta water and generous amount of cheese as these are what lend flavour to the dish.

I’m back with another fakeaway classic, Singapore noodles. You can use any meat you like in this dish, a combination of a few meats or no meat at all! You can marinate tofu, chicken, prawns, beef, pork in this dish. It’s packed full of veggies and flavour and all for under 450 calories per serving.

This recipe can be pulled together in less than 20minutes if you buy the pre-chopped stir-fry vegetables like I did. This one pot dish is sure to be a hit. This can easily be made vegetarian by adding tofu in place of the prawns & chicken. It’s packed full of flavour and has that true take away feel without the cost and sneaky extra calories.