One-Pot White Wine Pasta

By Ali Slagle

Updated April 14, 2026

  • Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
Media 1 of 1
Ready In
25 min
Rating
4(447)
Comments
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While this pasta is reminiscent of scampi, piccata and vongole, it delivers something more — a hard-to-pin-down complexity that comes from cooking the pasta not in water but in wine. Really! The pasta soaks up the wine’s layered flavors and piercing brightness, while the sharp alcohol evaporates away. Butter and anchovies round out the pasta to create a silky, savory sauce. Serve with seared chicken, shrimp or scallops, roasted mushrooms or a crunchy fennel or arugula salad.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter

  • 8 anchovy fillets

  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper, plus more as needed

  • 12 ounces long noodles, like spaghetti 

  • 1 (750-milliliter) bottle dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc

  • Salt

  • ½ cup finely chopped parsley leaves

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a large deep skillet or Dutch oven, melt the butter and anchovies over medium-high, smashing the anchovies until dissolved. When the butter is foaming, stir in the crushed red pepper. Add the pasta, white wine and 2 cups of water. Season with a big pinch of salt. Once boiling, cook, tossing often with tongs, until the spaghetti is tender, 8 to 12 minutes. If the pasta is looking dry, add ¼ cup more water. The sauce will continue to thicken as it sits, so better for it to be soupy than dry. 

  2. Step 2

    Stir in the parsley and season to taste with salt and crushed red pepper.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
447 user ratings
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Comments

WTR

it's been asked before, but why do these pasta recipes seem to always call for 12 oz?

keith

@Lee best overall substitute for anchovies to keep that umami taste: White miso paste;it dissolves like anchovies, delivers umami, and integrates cleanly into pasta sauces. Trader Joe's sells this. Other options: capers, kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, mushroom concentrate umami powder (also at TJs), or nutritional yeast.

Trish

@Peter W. Maybe I’m just a philistine, but I often make beef stew with old open bottles of red wine I wouldn’t drink, and it turns out great!

Ian W.

I've made this recipe twice now and it's always a hit. I do agree with the commenter below who questions why NY Times recipes always seem to call for 12 oz. of pasta, when dried pasta is ALWAYS sold in 16 oz. packages, at least in the US. You end up having to either do complicated math to adjust the recipe for 16 ounces of pasta or, more likely, end up with a bunch of open packs of pasta with 4 oz. leftover, an awkward amount that's too little for a single serving.

Tim

This did not taste good at all. I was excited to try this and thought the idea behind the recipe was interesting. I went to taste the pasta for doneness and it had the worst aftertaste. I’m usually down for an anchovy-heavy dish, but something about this amount of white wine in pasta just made it really unpleasant.

Tom S.

Would Chardonnay be okay?

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