
No matter what social media platform you often use, chances are you’ve ran into at least one short-form video from The Pasta Queen. Nadia Caterina Munno, who goes by “The Pasta Queen” online, runs a popular TikTok account that’s all about good food and good vibes. There are tons of upbeat cooking influencers out there, but Nadia stands out for her relaxed approach to cooking that will remind you that good food is less of an exact science and more of an art.
A lot of Nadia’s recipes on TikTok don’t give out measurements. Instead, she walks you through the steps, tells you what ingredients she uses in her recipes, and shows you how the food is supposed to look like. Add a hair flip from her and a compliment of “Gorgeous!” for each finished dish and all of her recipes come off as approachable for even the most inexperienced home cooks.
1. The Shrimpy Lemon Spaghetti
Nadia’s shrimpy lemon spaghetti is a refreshing pasta dish that will have you visualizing brunch on a summer afternoon spent at Lake Como.
Ingredients:
- Half of a large garlic, crushed into a paste
- One chili pepper
- Salt
- Shrimp, deshelled and deveined
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Cherry tomatoes (a lot of them)
- Parsley
- White wine
- Spaghetti noodles
- A ladle of tears of the gods (a.k.a pasta water)
- Lemon zest
Start by peeling and crushing your garlic to a paste. Your cherry tomatoes should be cut in half. Next, pour extra virgin olive oil into a hot pan and wait for it to heat up. When it’s warm, toss in a single chili pepper and wait for it to sizzle. This gives your pasta a kick of spice to contrast against the light, lemony taste it will have later.
Once your chili pepper sizzles, add your cherry tomatoes, a pinch of salt, and garlic paste. Follow with a sprinkle of parsley and your deshelled shrimp. Add a splash of white wine. “Splash” here is a rough measurement, but generally, it is considered to be less than .5 ounces.
You should have your noodles cooked al dente. Make sure to keep some of the pasta water since this is added to the dish later in the cooking process.
Mix the pasta with the rest of the ingredients in a pan and add a ladle full of pasta water. All there’s left now is to serve and sprinkle lemon zest on your pasta.
2. The World’s Best Carbonara
Italians are quick to tell you there’s no cream in carbonara and this recipe doesn’t have it either. Now, you might like your carbonara with cream but the exclusion honestly makes this dish easier to make.
Ingredients:
- Bacon
- Pecorino romano cheese
- Rigatoni
- 2 egg yolks and one whole egg
- Pepper
- Tears of the gods (a.k.a pasta water)
Start by chopping your bacon into fine bits and cook it in a pan with its own fat. it should start to sizzle soon. Prepare your rigatoni. As usual, Nadia recommends making it al dente so your pasta doesn’t end up too mushy.
Grate your pecorino romano cheese and start separating two of your egg yolks from the whites. Only the third egg is kept with both the yolk and whites in tact. These all go into the grated cheese which is then whisked vigorously to create a fine, creamy sauce. Season it with pepper to taste.
Now, add your pasta to the pan together with your bacon. Ladle in your cheese and egg paste and add pasta water to get the paste to smoothen. Season again with pepper.
3. The Pesto of Your Dreams
If you’re making the World’s Best Carbonara, you may as well make this pesto pasta from The Pasta Queen.
Ingredients:
- Linguine
- Fresh basil
- Garlic
- Pinenuts
- Parmigiano
- Pecorino romano cheese
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Tears of the gods (a.k.a pasta water)
Cook your linguine al dente. Grab a blender or food processor and combine your basil, garlic, pinenuts, extra virgin olive oil, and grated Parmigiano and pecorino romano cheese. Next, drain your pasta but save a ladle of pasta water for the last step.
Mix your pasta and pesto paste together and finish with the pasta water. Seriously, it’s that easy.
4. The Cobbler’s Wife Pasta
The Pasta Queen has a gift for storytelling that makes her pasta recipes so entertaining to watch, even if you might not feel like cooking anything. The cobbler’s wife pasta is named for the cobbler’s wife in Nadia’s story who comes up with the past to impress her shoemaker husband.
Ingredients:
- One chili pepper
- Garlic
- Basil
- Extra virgin olive oil
- A bowl of fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
- Salt
- Pasta water
- Parmigiano
- Pecorino cheese
- Pepper
- Spaghetti
Cook your spaghetti al dente and save the pasta water.
Chop several cloves of garlic and your chili pepper. Add extra virgin olive oil to your pan and wait for the oil to heat up. Next, add your garlic, chili pepper, and a couple basil leaves into the pan and wait for it to sizzle.
Grate your parmigiano and pecorino cheese.
Add your cooked pasta to the pan and follow with cheese. Pour in a ladle of pasta water to get your cheese to soften to a creamy paste. Season with pepper to taste and garnish with basil.
5. Cherry Tomato Ricotta Pasta
If you still have cherry tomatoes and basil left over from the previous recipes, consider putting together this ricotta pasta.
Ingredients:
- Basil
- Garlic
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Cherry tomatoes, halved
- Salt
- Pepper
- Fresh ricotta cheese
- Paccheri
- Pasta water
Add extra virgin olive oil to a pan and wait for it to heat up. Add crushed garlic and hand-ripped basil leaves to the pan. Once it sizzles, add your cherry tomatoes and season with salt. This process should crush your tomatoes a little so once you see them getting wrinkly, add your fresh ricotta cheese. Mix thoroughly and follow with cooked Paccheri pasta. Don’t forget to add your pasta water. Garnish with basil and season with pepper to taste.
6. Aglio Olio & Peperoncino Pasta
Aglio and olio is about as simple as it gets and this recipe from The Pasta Queen keeps it as fuss-free as the original while adding a unique twist. The tiny pepper adds heat to the dish, giving it a new dimension of flavor.
Ingredients:
- Spaghetti
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Two chili peppers
- Parsley
- Garlic
- Pasta water
You know the drill by now. Cook your spaghetti al dente and keep the water. Chop your garlic, peppers, and parsley before sautรฉing them in a pan of hot extra virgin olive oil. This next step is where the magic happens. As your ingredients cook, add more oil to extract all the flavor and aroma. Follow with cooked pasta and pasta water, and you’ve got yourself the best 20-minute pasta you’ve had all year.
7. Linguine with Clams (Linguine Alle Vongole)
A seafood pasta dish is one of those dishes that are simple to make but impress people anyway. The Pasta Queen’s clam pasta recipe is no exception.
Ingredients:
- Two cloves of garlic
- Cherry tomatoes
- Parsley
- Three chili peppers
- Linguine
- Clams
- White wine
- Pasta water
- Extra virgin olive oil
Cook your linguine and keep half a glass of the pasta water for later.
Take the stem of your parsley and set aside the leaves for later. Peel your garlic and cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Next, set a pan on your stove and add olive oil. Once that’s warm, add in your garlic, tomatoes, parsley stems, and chopped chili peppers.
Add your clams to the pan together with a splash of white wine and pasta water. You’ll know the clams are cooked when they start to open. You have to be careful not to overcook the clams so remove them the moment they open. Replace the clams with pasta and pour in a little more pasta water. Wait for it to simmer before adding your clams back in. Turn off your stove and serve the pasta. Garnish with parsley leaves.
8. The Assassin’s Spaghetti
The Assassin’s Pasta is the pasta that made The Pasta Queen, well, the pasta queen. This gorgeous pasta looks like everything is going wrong during the cooking process, but as they say, you just have to trust the process.
Ingredients:
- Spaghetti
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Garlic
- Chili peppers
- Tomato sauce
- Salt
Heat your oil in a pan and toss in chopped garlic and chili peppers. Wait for it to sizzle then add your tomato sauce. This is where the recipe goes ‘wrong’. Put the uncooked spaghetti noodles in the pan.
Get a pot and add about a glass or two of water in it. Next, put in a ciouple tablespoons of tomato sauce and a pinch of pepper, and wait for the mixture to boil. This creates a tomato broth that you’ll be adding a ladle of into your pasta pan.
Wait for the pasta to cook and don’t panic if it burns a little. It’s all part of the plan.
The Pasta Queen Has a Cookbook!

Read the Pasta Queen’s Cookbook
The Pasta Queen came out with a cookbook back in October 2022, so if you’re looking for a more in-depth collection of her pasta recipes, you should definitely check it out. The book is still brimming with Nadia’s good vibes and you can practically hear her saying gorgeous everytime you cook one of her recipes. Just make sure you have all the extra virgin olive oil you need to get through the entire cookbook.