Buttered Noodles For One

Buttered noodles are the ultimate fast and easy comfort food. All you need are 15 minutes, and you can have a big bowl of buttery, lightly cheesy pasta ready to go.

When it comes to fast, simple meals, it really doesn’t get easier than buttered noodles. This is a staple of so many people’s childhoods, but if it’s been a while, I’m here today to say you should totally start eating them again as an adult.

They’re quick, cheap, and the perfect uncomplicated lunch or dinner (or snack) when you’re craving some carbs and don’t feel like doing much cooking.

Overhead photo of buttered noodles in a white bowl. - 1

Ingredients

Pasta: Egg noodles are the classic buttered noodle pasta, but you don’t have to use egg noodles. Spaghetti, fettuccine, and farfalle are all good options.
Butter: Salted or unsalted butter will work just fine here.
Salt and pepper: Classic buttered noodles use only salt and pepper, but feel free to sprinkle on whatever spices sound good.
Parmesan cheese: If you have a block of parmesan, freshly grated parmesan works best as is will melt beautifully into the butter and pasta. But the shredded, bagged stuff will work too, it just might be a little clumpy. Canned parmesan will give the noodles a slightly different texture from fresh, but you can use that as well.

How to Make Buttered Noodles

Cook pasta in lightly salted water according to package instructions. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pasta to a bowl, but reserve a couple tablespoons of the pasta water. The starchy water will be added back to the pasta in a moment to help the butter and parmesan become a cohesive coating for the pasta.
Add butter to the hot pasta immediately and stir until the heat from the pasta melts the butter. Add parmesan and hot water and stir until creamy and melted.
Salt and pepper to taste. Make sure not to add salt until you’ve added the rest of the ingredients because the salty pasta water and parmesan may be salty enough that you need to add very little.

Very close up photo of buttered noodles sprinkled with parsley. - 2

Very close up photo of buttered noodles sprinkled with parsley. - 3

How to spice up buttered noodles?

If you want to make your noodles a little more exciting, try adding one of the following:

Cooked meat: Add a bit of protein by topping the finished pasta with warmed, cooked meat. Leftover Roasted Chicken works great and chopped ham or sausage (or hot dog) that has been browned in a skillet with a little olive oil is so good. If you want to cook chicken breast to add to your pasta, check out my How to Cook Chicken for Recipes post for my favorite chicken-cooking method.
Garlic and red pepper flakes: To add garlic and a little spice to your pasta, instead of adding butter directly to the pasta, melt it in a medium skillet. Add one large crushed or minced garlic clove and a couple pinches of red pepper flakes to the melted butter. Cook until the garlic turns golden and aromatic, 30 seconds to a minute, and then remove the pan from heat and toss the pasta and rest of the buttered noodle ingredients together in the hot pan.
Vegetables: If you have cooked veggies like Roasted Broccoli or Roasted Zucchini , you can just stir them into the finished noodles. If starting with uncooked veggies like broccoli or asparagus, you can chop them into bite-size pieces and cook them along with the pasta. Just add them into the hot pasta water for the last 3 to 4 minutes of cooking time. *This will slightly change the flavor of your pasta water, so if you don’t want your finished pasta to have extra veggie flavor, you can boil the veggies separately or cook them in the microwave .

What goes with buttered noodles?

Serve buttered noodles with a side of crusty bread and your favorite simple veggie side ( Roasted Green Beans or Parmesan Zucchini are great options).

Buttered noodles also make a fantastic easy side dish for meaty mains. This recipe makes enough to serve two as a side dish. Serve alongside Marinated Steak , Country-style Pork Ribs , or Roasted Tri-tip .

Single serving of buttered noodles in a bowl. - 4

Single serving of buttered noodles in a bowl. - 5

How to make buttered noodles without parmesan?

If you don’t have any parmesan at all, you can omit it. The flavor will be slightly less complex, but plain buttered noodles are still a good time.

More Single-serve Meals

Mac and Cheese for One
Chicken Noodle Soup for One
Scalloped Potatoes for One
Fettuccine Alfredo for One
Pancakes for One

Overhead photo of buttered noodles in a white bowl. - 6

Ingredients

▢ 3 ounces ( about 1 3/4 cup* ) egg noodles or noodles of choice
▢ 1 tablespoon ( 14g ) butter salted or unsalted is fine
▢ Salt and pepper
▢ 1 tablespoon freshly grated parmesan bagged and canned will also work
▢ Parsley chopped, optional

Instructions

In a small pot of lightly salted water, cook noodles according to package instructions. Drain, but reserve a couple tablespoons of the pasta water.
In a bowl, combine hot pasta, butter, parmesan cheese, and 1 tablespoon of the pasta water. Stir until butter and cheese are melted and pasta is coated. Add more water/salt/pepper to taste. Stir in parsley if desired.
Serve and enjoy!

Notes

These small-batch pumpkin snickerdoodles are ready to eat in less than 30 minutes. They’re chewy, pumpkin-y, and full of cinnamon snickerdoodle flavor.

Heya, friends. It’s that glorious time of year when we use fall as an excuse to stuff pumpkin into everything. Why yes, I would like some pumpkin in my lattes , my donuts , my pancakes , and my cake .

And today, let’s put some pumpkin in snickerdoodles.

Small-batch pumpkin snickerdoodles piled on a white plate. - 7

Small-batch pumpkin snickerdoodles piled on a white plate. - 8

Pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies are everything great about the classic snickerdoodle cookie . They’re chewy with slightly crispy edges, rolled in spicy-sweet cinnamon sugar, and are just a little tangy. But this version has extra fall spices and pumpkin flavor, which makes them that much more irresistible and perfect.

Ingredients

Baking staples: Most of the ingredients in these cookies are baking staples you probably always have in your cupboard, all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, granulated and brown sugar, and vanilla extract.
Cream of tartar: Cream of tartar is a classic snickerdoodle ingredient. It gives the cookies that signature snickerdoodle tang and also helps activate the baking soda to help the cookies rise. You can find it with the spices in the spice aisle, and it is a useful ingredient to keep stocked in your kitchen. BUT if you don’t have any, you can omit it.
Fall spices: These cookies use a combo of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg for added fall flavor. If you have pumpkin pie spice , you can replace these spices with 1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice.
Butter: This recipe calls for unsalted butter, but you can substitute salted butter with no problems. Just cut the salt in the recipe by half, down to 1/8 teaspoon.
Egg yolk: Because these are small-batch cookies and there’s so much liquid in the pumpkin puree, you only need an egg yolk. Using a whole egg will make these cookies too moist, and they won’t bake up properly. For ideas on what to do with that leftover egg white, check out my post What to Do With Leftover Egg Whites (I recommend a small batch of pumpkin cupcakes ).
Pumpkin puree: Pumpkin puree is pure, pureed pumpkin (don’t mix it up with pumpkin pie filling, which is pureed pumpkin with sweeteners and spices). You can usually find it in the baking aisle near the canned pie fillings. This recipe won’t use up an entire can of pumpkin puree, so see my post What to Do With Leftover Pumpkin Puree for storage tips and recipe ideas for the leftovers.

Pumpkin snickerdoodles stacked on a plate. - 9

Pumpkin snickerdoodles stacked on a plate. - 10

How to Make Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

To make your cookies, combine cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
Whisk together all your dry ingredients in a small bowl, and in a medium bowl, combine all the wet ingredients.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until just combined. Scoop rounded spoonfuls of the dough (this should make 8 cookies), and roll into balls.
Roll the balls in cinnamon sugar and place the cookies on the cookie sheet.
Use the fleshly part of your palm to gently smash the cookies down to 1/2-inch thick. Don’t skip this step or your cookies will be too thick and won’t look like the ones in the photographs.
Bake until the cookies look set, allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, and enjoy!

How to Store Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Can I freeze pumpkin snickerdoodles?

Yes! These cookies freeze well. Freeze baked cookies in a freezer bag and keep in the freezer for up to 2 months.

To eat, remove from the freezer and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes to defrost.

Pumpkin snickerdoodles on parchment paper. - 11

Pumpkin snickerdoodles on parchment paper. - 12

Can I double this recipe?

Yes! This recipe doubles with no preparation changes needed. To change the yield, in the recipe card below, hover over the serving size or click if you’re on mobile, and slide the slider.

More Fall Recipes

Classic Pumpkin Bread
Small-batch Pumpkin Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting
The Best Dutch Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pancakes
Small No-bake Marshmallow Pumpkin Cheesecake

Small batch of pumpkin snickerdoodles stacked by a jar of milk. - 13

Small batch of pumpkin snickerdoodles stacked by a jar of milk. - 14

Baking Tips

As always, with small-batch recipes, flour measurement is very important for the best results. Be sure to measure your flour by weight or using the spoon and sweep method (stir the flour in your container to fluff it up and then spoon it into your measuring cup, sweep excess off with the flat of a knife). Too much flour and your cookies won’t spread properly.

Small-batch pumpkin snickerdoodles piled on a white plate. - 15