One-Pot Cheesy Ground Beef Pasta, a spectacular midweek dinner recipe that is ready in about 30 minutes. A fantastic blend of flavours, this pasta dish can be enjoyed by the whole family, fussy eaters included. No need for a tomato sauce, this pasta is sheer heaven.
Pasta might be the basic food we all go back to whenever we have no idea what else to cook, but how about we take it to the very next level this time? And up its nutritional value by adding some ground beef, vegetables and cheese to make a super delicious, comforting and filling dish that will knock everybody’s socks off.
Bonus point, we only have one pot to worry about, so no fuss, and hardly any effort here. And I can guarantee you, even those fussy little ones will eat up and ask for seconds. At least my girls did, and not just that, but they were also happy to have more for their next meal, which rarely happens.
They are those kind of kids who like to have mummy slaving away in the kitchen forever by refusing to have the same food for lunch and dinner. They are ok if they have it the next day for one of their meals, I guess they forget quickly what they had the previous day. So, yeah, I am rather happy with this ground beef pasta dish.
Have some leftover roast? How about we make some One-Pot Leftover Roast Chicken Pasta? It can be made with any kind of leftover meat, I used chicken, but leftover beef, lamb, pork etc can be used too.
HOW TO MAKE GROUND BEEF PASTA IN ONE POT
As promised, it’s super simple, and you can add any other vegetables you like or have around, no need to worry if you don’t have these exact veggies I used, anything goes.
- start by sauteing the onion in a bit of oil – I cut it into slices, but you can chop it up if you like
- once it has soften, add the ground beef and stir until no longer pink
- add the chopped garlic, peppers and tomato paste – again, any kind of peppers you have, and the tomato paste can be omitted
- add the pasta and beef stock (broth) and leave to cook with the lid on until all the stock is absorbed – that should take about 15 minutes or so, depending on the heat
- season with salt and black pepper, add the paprika, mixed herbs, cheddar and parmesan cheese, and garnish with fresh parsley
- remove from the heat, and leave the lid on for 5-10 minutes so the pasta can soak up all the flavours
And that’s it, no need to worry about cooking pasta separately while juggling a complicated sauce. It’s as simple as one can ask for.
Can the sauce be cooked separately?
If you want to cook the sauce separately to freeze for another time, that is very easy to do. Leave the pasta out and reduce the beef stock to 1 1/2-2 cups, the beef will be cooked through with less, the reason we add more is to cook the pasta too.
Then follow the exact steps, and leave the sauce to cool down before adding it to freezer-friendly containers. All you need to do is heat it and in the microwave and add it to pasta of any kind, rice, bulgur wheat or anything else you like.
This ground beef pasta is not made with tomato sauce apart from the concentrated tomato paste, but if you like to leave it out, that’s fine, you can perhaps add red pepper paste for colour, although the paprika works fine too.
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One-Pot Cheesy Ground Beef Pasta, a spectacular midweek dinner recipe that is ready in about 30 minutes. A fantastic blend of flavours, this pasta dish can be enjoyed by the whole family, fussy eaters included. No need for a tomato sauce, this pasta is sheer heaven.
- 250 g ground beef (1/2 lb) - I used lean, 5% fat
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 yellow pepper
- 1 orange pepper
- 1 cup penne pasta
- 4 cups beef stock (broth)
- 2 tbsp concentrated tomato paste (puree)
- 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
- 2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
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Heat up the oil in a large pan, peel and slice the onion, and sautee until soft.
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Add the ground beef and stir to break the meat until no longer pink.
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Add the chopped garlic, peppers and tomato paste, and give it a stir.
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Add the pasta and beef stock, cover the pan with a lid, and leave to cook until the liquid is absorbed and the pasta is cooked.
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Add the cheddar and parmesan, and fresh parsley.
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Remove from the heat, and leave the lid on for 5-10 minutes, the cheese will melt and the full flavours will come through.
Recipe Video
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