Family Favorite Pasta Recipes To Add To Your Menu Planning

Here are 5 super simple family favorite pasta recipes. Add these to your menu planning for everyday fare, or dressed up fancy for guests.

Our family has a few go-to pasta dishes that are perfect for any meal: casual week night go-tos or plated beautifully for more fancy dinners for guests. We’ll give you the “plunk-it-down and gobble-it-up” recipes, then give suggestions for dressing them up.

Family Favorite Pasta Recipes

Four of these five recipes use chicken, one of our meat staples in this house. Our easy oven prep idea for chicken tenders is used in all these chicken pasta recipes.

We brush olive oil on a sheet pan, sprinkle with your favorite seasonings, and top with the tenders. Then brush olive oil on top of the tenders and sprinkle with another layer of the seasonings. Preheat oven to 425° and back for 10 to 12 minutes, turn and bake another 8 to 10 minutes. Use immediately or chill for cutting up for recipes later.

Chicken Manicotti

This is a recipe from our daughter-in-law, and when I ask the man of the house what I should make, this is one of his first picks.

It has a dash of Spanish more than Italian, and it’s a keeper.

It doesn’t need dressing up if you bake it in a pretty casserole. A few sun-dried tomatoes melted in the top layer of cheese adds some panache.

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Chicken Manicotti

Pasta with a little Spanish spice.

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 14 manicotti shells
• 2 cups shredded chicken
• 3 cups shredded cheddar-jack cheese, divided
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 oz. diced green chili
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 cup salsa

Instructions

• Boil and cool the manicotti shells according to package directions.
• Mix the rest of the ingredients, except the shredded chicken and half the cheddar-jack cheese, in a large mixing bowl. Add the chicken.
• Fill a large pastry bag with meat mixture and pipe it into the shells.
• Place half a cup of the meat sauce in the bottom of a casserole pan. Line with the pasta shells. Pour the rest of the sauce on top. Cover with foil and bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 350°.
• Just before serving, uncover the casserole pan and top with the rest of the cheese. Place back into the oven to melt. Add sun-dried tomatoes to the cheese to dress it up.

Chicken Spaghetti

You’d be a little challenged at making this fancy-dinner fare, because it’s just so down home yummy.

Just before serving you could plate it on a large platter, top with hot chicken tenders sliced diagonally and placed strategically, then shred some fresh parmesan on top.

For your every day meal, ladle it hot from the cooking pot into a soup tureen. It can start out fairly soupy, before all the scrumptious juices soak into the pasta.

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Chicken Spaghetti

The best spaghetti ever.

Cuisine: American

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1/2 cup green pepper and onion, diced
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup picante sauce or Rotelle tomatoes
• 8 oz spaghetti pasta
• 1/2 lb. cheddar-jack cheese, shredded
• butter for sautéing

Instructions

• Sauté the vegetables in butter in a large saucepan.
• Cook the pasta according to package directions, using chicken broth, if desired, instead of water. Drain.
• Add all ingredients to the vegetables in the saucepan and stir to mix.
• Serve hot from the pan, or place in casserole in a medium oven to keep piping hot until serving time.

Chicken Alfredo

I’d give this dish the same dressed-up treatment as Chicken Spaghetti: A pretty platter or casserole, top with chicken, then zap under the broiler to melt some cheese on top.

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Chicken Alfredo

Another go-to pasta favorite.

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 cups milk
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper
• 2 cups chicken, cubed
• 8 oz. fettuccini, cooked and drained
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1/2 cup each zucchini and red pepper, julienned

Instructions

• Melt the butter, and whisk in the flour until smooth. Add the milk and cook and stir until thickened.
• Add the cream cheese, cubed, and melt until smooth.
• Add the seasonings and the chicken and vegetables. Heat through, but don't boil again.
• Add the pasta and serve.
• All Dressed Up: Steam the vegetables slightly in the microwave and sprinkle on top of the plated pasta and chicken. Stir just enough to look mixed in.

Shrimp Linguini

Our lone pasta favorite that calls for shrimp, although we do use chicken just as often. The pasta part of the recipe is the same for either meat.

All Dressed Up: Platter the pasta and pour the sauce on top. Add the meat, some fresh grated cheese, and heat till the cheese sizzles under the broiler just before serving.

This sauce recipe is actually identical to the Alfredo Sauce. In place of fettuccini, use linguini pasta. Same amount. Prepare the shrimp your favorite way. Ours is scampi style. Or use chicken instead of shrimp.

Homemade Ravioli

Confession time.

I’ve never made this pasta dish by myself. Only with a friend. Because it’s a labor intensive dish and I’m not brave enough to tackle all the steps by myself. Although the end result would definitely be worth it.

I think I’d prepare the pasta ahead of time and freeze it, then make the rest of the meal the day we served it.

This pasta recipe calls for special tools to make it easier, although you can make it all by hand the hard way. You need a noodle machine and a ravioli tray. (Affiliate links.)

Since this recipe involves quite a few steps, we plan to have an entire post in future. However, I had to include it in our list of family pasta recipes, because this is the best ravioli you will ever eat. The recipe is snitched straight from a famous Wisconsin restaurant, no changes! (Except the chef.)

What are your family favorite pasta recipes?

Let us know in the comments which pasta dishes you add to your weekly menu planning. Do you prefer simple pasta dishes like ours, or are you a gourmet cook?