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

First, I wanted to try the recipe that involved combining pasta with sautéed garlic, lemon zest, pasta water, oil, and cheese.

Guarnaschelli also said you can easily make this sauce dairy-free with “either a pinch of ground-up almonds that are really toasted or a cheese substitute.”

I often toss pasta water and Parmesan together for a quick sauce, but I was intrigued by the addition of sautéed garlic and lemon.

This was just as easy as it sounds

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.

Before the pasta finished cooking, I reserved some of the pasta water to bind the simple sauce and the pasta together.

Once the pasta drained, I poured the garlic-and-olive-oil mix, cheese, and lemon zest over the pasta and stirred until the cheese melted and coated the noodles evenly.

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

This pasta was, unsurprisingly, tasty. It was similar to my own pasta water-and-Parmesan hack but with less cheese and a deeper flavor thanks to the garlic and lemon.

Next time, I’d actually double the zest, as I found myself wanting more of that to come through.

That’s really the beauty of this recipe — it’s very simple but customizable.

Sometimes, I might want to drown my sorrows in more EVOO and Parmesan. Other times, I’ll go light on the cheese and heavier on the lemon. On days I don’t have to be near anyone, I’ll add a heaping amount of garlic.

I don’t think any ratio variant could mess this up. 

The second sauce hack involved a lot of sour cream

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 went for lemon zest, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, salt, black pepper, and a little Parmesan cheese alongside the sour cream.

This was another quick meal, and there were no hiccups with the heating of the sour cream

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

The easy sour-cream sauce was delicious, and I loved that it used up so many random bits from my kitchen. 

The flavor was tangy and savory. The lemon zest complemented the sour cream, and the seasonings nicely contrasted it. It vaguely reminded me of sour cream-and-onion potato chips — but in a good way.

I know sometimes you can sneak sour cream into dishes and not really taste it, but this isn’t one of those cases. I wouldn’t recommend it for people who don’t like the dairy product, but I love sour cream and thought the sauce was so delicious and dynamic in flavor.

Despite the praise, I want to note that I don’t think this pasta will reheat well. It’s probably best not to make a large batch. 

The third sauce also made use of ingredients that might’ve otherwise been wasted

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

As the chef instructed, I blistered the tomatoes in oil in a small saucepot. Then, just before the pasta was ready, I added some reserved pasta water, mustard, salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar, and Parmesan cheese.

The real trick I learned from Guarnaschelli was to pull the pasta from the boiling water a minute early and add it to the saucepan with the sauce. 

“No matter what sauce you’re making, make it more flavorful by binding the pasta and the sauce a minute longer to get to know each other before you eat them together,” she told BI.

Binding the pasta and sauce made for the perfect texture

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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