Consider how complex or simple you want your pasta dinner to be. If you’re running low on ingredients, keep it an ingredient-light meal by using 8 ounces of pasta, 1 or 2 tablespoons of chili crisp, and little else. Bitter greens like kale or arugula can be tossed in with this, as well as pungent herbs like parsley and basil. For added richness, you can sear off some bacon or pancetta and mix that in as well.
If you’d rather start with a more traditional sauce, look to a classic marinara recipe. Acidic and sweet tomatoes welcome a bit of heat (and crunch) from the chili crisp. Stir in 1 tablespoon of chili crisp per batch of sauce. As is, this mix resembles an arrabbiata sauce with an Asian twist, but feel free to add in some meatballs to make it truly retro Italian fare. A dash of chili crisp would even work well with vodka sauce, butter sauce, or a cheese-forward Alfredo sauce. Basically, anywhere you feel like adding in some red pepper flakes to balance out the richness of your pasta sauce, consider stirring in chili crisp instead.
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