Pasta is the weeknight staple. Everyone has a few speedy pasta recipes in their back pocket for when time is tight and dinner needs to be fast. And while the classics are classics for a reason – it's hard to beat carbonara, pasta with pesto or a simple tomato sauce like pasta alla Norma – sometimes, you also need to shake it up.

Here we have a collection of eight quick pasta recipes which you might not have tried before. From pasta alla gricia (the less well-known Roman cousin of pasta carbonara) to creamy artichoke orzotto (a risotto-esque bowl of pure comfort).

Dig in, and try something new – it might become a new favourite.

This recipe from Pip Lacey is designed to be made with homemade fresh pasta, but works just as well with shop-bought pappardelle. A very generous amount of butter and white wine form the base of the sauce, which is then mixed with rainbow chard. If you don’t have any rainbow chard, this could be swapped out for another semi-tender green like savoy cabbage.

This sardine pasta recipe can be made with fresh or tinned sardines, which means it uses surprisingly few fresh ingredients for a seafood pasta – just lemon and fennel. The breadcrumbs add an easy bit of crunch to the top of the pasta, while the raisins bring a few pops of sweetness.

This linguine with tonnato sauce uses egg yolks, tinned tuna and olive oil to make a silky sauce that clings to the pasta without any cream or dairy. The pasta is then topped with gremolata – a punchy mixture of anchovies, capers, parsley and onions – which cuts through the richness of the sauce beautifully.

Pasta alla gricia really just uses three ingredients: guanciale, Parmesan and pasta. Guanciale can be a little tricky to find in the UK, but pancetta makes a good substitute. The pork fat forms the base of the sauce, so be patient when cooking down the guanciale to render as much of it as possible.

This pleasantly soupy orzo dish from Anna Tobias combines quick-cooking mussels with a fennel-forward rich tomato sauce. Anna picks the mussel flesh from the shells, which can take some time, but if you’re short on time you could always leave half in their shells.

This simple Parma ham and broccoli rigatoni from Luke Holder makes a brilliant lunch dish. Breadcrumbs are quickly fried in butter and olive oil, while the broccoli cooks with the pasta to save time. Wide strips of salty Parma ham are stirred in at the end for a simple, moreish pasta dish that comes together in minutes.

This puttanesca from Rachel Phipps is made with fresh cherry tomatoes rather than tinned, which makes it a great dish for summer, and slightly lighter than a traditional puttanesca. It’s still loaded with delicious, briny ingredients though – black olives, capers and anchovies.

This recipe for orzotto treats orzo, a type of tiny pasta, like risotto rice, toasting it in the pan before adding liquid slowly and stirring vigorously to make it as starchy as possible. A rich mixture of jarred artichokes blended with their oil is stirred through the orzotto towards the end.