Easy Pasta Sauce Recipe For One

This easy pasta recipe is my go-to dinner when there’s no time to cook. In Italy, it’s known as pasta aglio e olio, which means pasta with olive oil and garlic. A few simple ingredients like spaghetti, olive oil, garlic, and Parmesan are all you need!

Confession: When I find myself alone for dinner, I often make bad choices. Sometimes it’s pizza, sometimes it’s fast food procured from a drive-through window. And, yes, sometimes it’s ice cream.

In an attempt to thwart this bad behavior, I’ve been thinking about easy dinners that can stand up to the junk food cravings that seem to hit when I am left to my own devices for dinner.

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Olive oil and garlic pasta is the perfect solution on nights when the bright lights of a fast-food chain beckons. It’s a super easy pasta recipe that takes no time at all to make.

If you don’t love super garlic-y pasta, you may want to cut the garlic amount in half (or if you really love garlic, chop up an extra clove!) – Remember, I enjoyed this while I was home 

 for a week. I didn’t care if I reeked of garlic. Do whatever makes you happy because that’s what a dinner for one is all about, right?

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In the time it takes to boil the spaghetti, you can have this easy pasta dish for one ready to go. It’s so fast and easy!

Part of the appeal of this olive oil and garlic pasta is that it’s very simple and so delicious! That said, there are ways to dress it up:

I hope you love this easy dinner for one as much as I do! This pasta with olive oil and garlic is one of my all-time favorite easy pasta recipes ❤

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📣 Do you love this recipe? I would love to know! Leave a comment below the recipe, along with your recipe star rating.

This olive oil and garlic pasta (or aglio e olio as it’s known in Italy) is my go-to dinner when I’m on my own. All it takes is a few simple ingredients and about 15 minutes to pull it together! This recipe serves one, but you can easily scale it up if you want a few more servings.

I’m a passionate home cook, cookbook author, recipe developer, freelance writer, food photographer, and dog mom ❤ I garnish (almost) everything with parsley and believe you can make deliciously amazing dishes with everyday ingredients.For the best garlic butter sauce for pasta, use way more garlic than you’d think. This recipe serves two people and calls for a whole head—and nope, that’s not a mistake. When sizzled in melted butter until golden and toasty, this ingredient goes from sharp and bracing to warm and cozy, the sort of savory flavor that’s hard to overdo. Make sure that once it’s done cooking, you don’t drain the pasta into a colander. We want that salty, starchy water on call to bump up the seasoning and loosen the sauce as needed. It’ll thicken as it sits at the table, so err on the side of saucier than not. The optional bonuses are just that: totally optional. As in all Big Little Recipes, less is more here. Think: roughly chopped parsley (or basil or thyme), red pepper flakes or freshly ground black pepper, or grated Parm or pecorino. Opt for three picks, tops, so the butter and garlic can shine—they’re the stars of this show.

Easy Pasta Dinner Ideas

Some additional tips for garlic butter sauce success: Any butter will do the trick here. But if you’re like me, and there’s a so-called “special butter” that you reserve for morning toast and baked potatoes (I love higher-fat, sunny-hued Kerrygold), this is a great time to use it. After all, the butter is half of the sauce. And if you only have salted butter on hand, that’s okay; just tone down the salt in the rest of the recipe, then increase to taste at the very end. On that note, when I say to “generously” season the pasta water with salt, I aim for about 1 tablespoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt per 1 quart of water. But! You can tone that down to 2 teaspoons, 1 teaspoon, or even 1/2 teaspoon of salt per quart of water. It all depends on your personal preference. And no need to measure the salt or the water; just eyeball both. This makes sure the pasta is taken care of. Any pasta shape will excel (thrive! soar!) in this context. I prefer a chunky variety with lots of nooks and crannies (say fusilli, rigatoni, or cavatappi), where the garlic bits can take refuge. But something long and twirly like spaghetti, linguine, or bucatini would be excellent, too. And if nutty whole-wheat pasta is your thing? Go for it.

Emma was the food editor at . She created the award-winning column, Big Little Recipes, and turned it into a cookbook in 2021. These days, she's a senior editor at Bon Appétit, leading digital cooking coverage. Say hello on Instagram at @emmalaperruque.

📣 Do you love this recipe? I would love to know! Leave a comment below the recipe, along with your recipe star rating.

This olive oil and garlic pasta (or aglio e olio as it’s known in Italy) is my go-to dinner when I’m on my own. All it takes is a few simple ingredients and about 15 minutes to pull it together! This recipe serves one, but you can easily scale it up if you want a few more servings.

I’m a passionate home cook, cookbook author, recipe developer, freelance writer, food photographer, and dog mom ❤ I garnish (almost) everything with parsley and believe you can make deliciously amazing dishes with everyday ingredients.For the best garlic butter sauce for pasta, use way more garlic than you’d think. This recipe serves two people and calls for a whole head—and nope, that’s not a mistake. When sizzled in melted butter until golden and toasty, this ingredient goes from sharp and bracing to warm and cozy, the sort of savory flavor that’s hard to overdo. Make sure that once it’s done cooking, you don’t drain the pasta into a colander. We want that salty, starchy water on call to bump up the seasoning and loosen the sauce as needed. It’ll thicken as it sits at the table, so err on the side of saucier than not. The optional bonuses are just that: totally optional. As in all Big Little Recipes, less is more here. Think: roughly chopped parsley (or basil or thyme), red pepper flakes or freshly ground black pepper, or grated Parm or pecorino. Opt for three picks, tops, so the butter and garlic can shine—they’re the stars of this show.

Easy Pasta Dinner Ideas

Some additional tips for garlic butter sauce success: Any butter will do the trick here. But if you’re like me, and there’s a so-called “special butter” that you reserve for morning toast and baked potatoes (I love higher-fat, sunny-hued Kerrygold), this is a great time to use it. After all, the butter is half of the sauce. And if you only have salted butter on hand, that’s okay; just tone down the salt in the rest of the recipe, then increase to taste at the very end. On that note, when I say to “generously” season the pasta water with salt, I aim for about 1 tablespoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt per 1 quart of water. But! You can tone that down to 2 teaspoons, 1 teaspoon, or even 1/2 teaspoon of salt per quart of water. It all depends on your personal preference. And no need to measure the salt or the water; just eyeball both. This makes sure the pasta is taken care of. Any pasta shape will excel (thrive! soar!) in this context. I prefer a chunky variety with lots of nooks and crannies (say fusilli, rigatoni, or cavatappi), where the garlic bits can take refuge. But something long and twirly like spaghetti, linguine, or bucatini would be excellent, too. And if nutty whole-wheat pasta is your thing? Go for it.

Emma was the food editor at . She created the award-winning column, Big Little Recipes, and turned it into a cookbook in 2021. These days, she's a senior editor at Bon Appétit, leading digital cooking coverage. Say hello on Instagram at @emmalaperruque.