Quick, Simple, and Downright Comforting Dishes for Busy Weeknights

Throwing together a delicious dinner on a weeknight can be an easy—and even enjoyable—affair. Just ask an Italian: In Italy, ingredients drive the meal and, if you choose high-quality ones, an exceptional dinner can feel effortless.

Take Mutti, Italy’s number one tomato brand. The fourth-generation, family-run company harvests the highest quality tomatoes and preserves them within five hours to retain every ounce of flavor. That’s why, whether you’re using their fresh and fragrant Finely Chopped Tomatoes (Polpa, in Italian), rich and intense Double Concentrated Tomato Paste (Doppio Concentrato) or sweet and velvety Tomato Purée (Passata), the vine-ripened tomatoes taste as if they were just picked. Rely on ingredients like these, and your work in the kitchen will yield wonderful results.

Here are five fast and easy weeknight recipes that let the ingredients do the work for you.

Pasta with Spicy ‘Ndjua Tomato Sauce

A great meat sauce doesn’t need to take hours. In fact, it can take just 30 minutes. Case in point, this easy, weeknight pasta that relies on ‘nduja, a soft, spreadable salami that packs a serious punch. Because it breaks down easily, it emulsifies into this simple sauce—made with jarred passata like Mutti® Tomato Purée—for a nearly effortless meat sauce.

Get the recipe for Pasta with Spicy ‘Ndjua Tomato Sauce

Tomato-Poached Shrimp with Peas, Herbs and Farro

Shrimp is a great weeknight ingredient, but not if it ends up overcooked and rubbery, as it all too often does. Not so in this dish, where shrimp poaches in Mutti® Finely Chopped Tomatoes with peas and capers. Serve it with toothsome farrow and fresh herbs for an occasion-worthy dinner that’s ready in 20 minutes.

Get the recipe for Tomato-Poached Shrimp with Peas, Herbs and Farro

Fresh Tomato Soup with Basil

Whatever the temperature outside, when you use high-quality tomato purée, like the one from Mutti®, you can still make a tomato soup that tastes like summer but is comforting enough for colder days. By building a flavor base with sautéed onions, this seven-ingredient soup (six if you don’t count salt) tastes so much more complex than it is, and it maintains a bright, sweet flavor and luxurious texture, thanks to the Mutti® Tomato Purée.

Get the recipe for Fresh Tomato Soup with Basil

Eggs in Purgatory

Learn how to make eggs in purgatory, and you’ll always have a quick dinner at the ready. This recipe uses Mutti® Finely Chopped Tomatoes for a quick, bold sauce that envelops perfectly cooked eggs. Just be sure to serve with lots of toasted bread or focaccia.

Get the recipe for Eggs in Purgatory

Quick and Easy Italian American Red Sauce

Red sauce doesn’t require an afternoon in front of the stove (although there’s a time and place for that). This weeknight meal makes use of garlic, both dried and fresh herbs, and canned whole peeled tomatoes for deep flavor as well as a fresh finish.

Get the recipe for Quick and Easy Italian American Red Sauce