Carbo-Load with the Best Pasta in L.A.

This food truck shows up at various locations, from the West Side to the NoHo Arts District, proferring its handmade pastas to the lunchtime crowd. As a child in Northern Italy, the chef used to help her mom make gnocchi. Order it topped with your choice of sauces, such as the pesto alla Genovese, made with pine nuts, fresh basil, Pecorino Romano, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and lots of oil and garlic. Oh, and if you’re not into the food truck experience, there are brick-and-mortar joints on Pico and in Culver City.

3343 W. Pico Blvd. and 3280 Helms Ave., Culver City; pastasisters.com

Making pasta fresh every day, this Santa Monica restaurant has a creative menu inspired by the fresh ingredients at the nearby farmers market. Take a short walk from the Third Street Promenade and choose from dishes such as the ricotta gnocchi with wild arugula, cherry tomatoes and almonds, and the casunziei, a half moon–shaped red beet ravioli with brown butter and poppy seeds.

1241 Fifth St., Santa Monica; 310-310-8336 or colapasta.restaurant

With just three tables and a counter at this tiny Redondo Beach pasta spot, the emphasis is more on the food than the ambience (and the thriving takeout business, of course). You choose a sauce (yum, minty pesto) and the pasta you want with it (how about fusilli, so the ridges catch lots of tasty sauce?) and enjoy. You can also get the ingredients out of the deli case and prep at home, in case you want your family to think you spent hours on dinner.

610 Torrance Blvd., Redondo Beach; 310-316-5111 or pastashoprb.com

This Pasadena spot offers a seasonal menu that’s Northern Italian by way of California fresh and local. So some fare is a tad lighter, like the eggplant lasagnette, but there are also bold layered flavors, like the Calabrese pork ragù torchetti, topped with a hunk of house ricotta and fried rosemary and peperoncini.

37 E. Union St., Pasadena; 626-795-5841 or unionpasadena.com

Sometimes there’s the underrated dish that the chef tells you to get, and you fall in love. Here, it’s the busiati, with black chickpeas from Altomonte, mussels from PEI, minutina, tomatoes and white wine. Fresh and bright, but still satisfying.

1023 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice; 424-387-8622 or felixla.com

People go nuts here for the bone marrow pasta, or to use its proper name, creste di gallo midollo, with roasted garlic, bone marrow, parsley, Parmesan and cracked black pepper. It’s got an earthy and humble taste that’s so beyond satisfying on a winter evening. Bonus: For a $3 surcharge, you can have your order made with house-made gluten-free pasta.

317 Manhattan Beach. Blvd., Manhattan Beach; 310-545-5252 or loveandsaltla.com

This restaurant is determined to bring well-prepared pasta dishes to the masses affordably (as in, all dishes under $20), made with pasta imported from Bologna (believed to be better tasting, due to a special egg available only in Italy). However, you’ll need to make an exception for white truffle season, when the tagliatelle al tartufo bianco d’Alba is worth the surcharge for its funky, rarefied aroma and taste.

1320 Second St.; 310-425-0064 or uovo.la

Pasta is delicious, but it’s not always the most photogenic plate of food. Never fear, the red beet spaghetti here is going to get you all the likes on social media, served at this “pop-up lunch residency” inside the wine bar Mignon. It’s open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., but it’s worth changing your schedule around for the well-priced house-made pastas so delish you might need to go home for a nap after lunch.

At Mignon Wine Bar, 128 E. Sixth St.; 213-489-0131 or centopasta.com

t’s soup inside pasta—tortellini en brodo—and it’s one of the signature dishes at this minimalist, glass-fronted restaurant in Silverlake. Chef Zach Pollack spent time working and eating in each of Italy’s 20 regions, and it shows in this menu, which ranges from small plates to large-format dishes and includes pastas served with crab and duck sausage.

Cacio e pepe—that’s cheese and pepper—is the kind of simple Italian dish that’s easy to do…and so easy to do poorly. But this classic Italian fancy-night-out spot delivers the dish like a sophisticated version of mac ’n’ cheese, with house-made bavette pasta that’s like spaghetti but with a little curve to better hold all that cheese.

6602 Melrose Ave.; 323-297-0100 or la.osteriamozza.com

Multiple-time James Beard Award–nominated chef Casey Lane has a novel concept at this restaurant inside the Kimpton hotel in West Hollywood. It’s a trattoria inspired by coastal Mediterranean cooking, including southern French and North African influences. The tagliatelle with rabbit, sweetbreads, vin santo, mushrooms and sage will be your new go-to.

La Peer Hotel, 623 N. La Peer Dr., West Hollywood; 310-691-1600 or vialedeiromani.com