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Saturday, November 14, 2026Nov 14

Brilliant pasta recipes for everyone who hates doing the dishes

FILE -- One-pot spaghetti with cherry tomatoes and kale, in New York, Dec. 10, 2018. The majority of these recipes will deliver a whole meal in a single pot, pan or skillet, full stop. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. (Ryan Liebe/The New York Times)
FILE -- One-pot spaghetti with cherry tomatoes and kale, in New York, Dec. 10, 2018. The majority of these recipes will deliver a whole meal in a single pot, pan or skillet, full stop. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. (Ryan Liebe/The New York Times)

Whether you like cooking, love it or are indifferent to the task, most of us can agree that washing a lot of pots and pans after dinner is a drag.

Wouldn’t it instead be easier if there were really only one? One skillet or one Dutch oven, one sheet pan, one pot? Wouldn’t that be great?

Imagine the ease of it, to come home from work and turn on the oven, line a sheet pan with foil or parchment, tip onto it some vegetables, some protein, some aromatics and sauce: Dinner, nothing else required!

Editor’s note

This is the first in a five-part series of main-dish meals that can be cooked in a single pot, pan or skillet.› Feb. 25: Pasta› March 3: Chicken› March 10: Beef and pork› March 17: Seafood› March 24: Vegetables

That’s why the editors of NYT Cooking have put together this modest (and beautiful), wide-ranging (and tightly focused) collection of recipes devoted to the celebration of one-vessel cooking, on the stovetop and in the oven.