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.
Love one-pot recipes? My One-Pot Leftover Roast Chicken Pasta can be made with any kind of leftover meat, I used chicken, but leftover beef, lamb, pork etc can be used too.
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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 sautéing 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 ½-2 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.
More ground beef recipes
Ground beef makes quick and easy family meals that always go down a treat, these recipes are the true definition of comfort food no matter the season.
- Deliciously Easy Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe
- Stuffed Peppers with Ground Beef and Rice
- Slow Cooker Ground Beef and Sweet Potato Chili
- Chili Recipe with Beans
- Bolognese-Stuffed Marrow
If you’ve liked my ONE-POT CHEESE GROUND BEEF PASTA or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’m getting up to.
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 (½ 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 tablespoon concentrated tomato paste (puree)
- ¼ cup grated cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon 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.
Daria Fama Moore
It was very good and the family loved it but I had too much liquid Wasn't sure what to do so I used a ladle to remove some of the liquid. Other suggestions
Daniela Apostol
I am glad you liked the pasta. Perhaps if you add less stock/broth to begin with, and add more only if needed to get the pasta to the desired texture. I hope this helps!
Tiffany
My family loved this. We used GF noodles and 3 cups broth. I was concerned but ended up not having any extra liquid thankfully. Everyone enjoyed it - picky 2 and 8 y/o approved and amateur chef husband. Paprika and herbs are missing from the ingredient list at the end.
El
Hi Daniela, thanks for the recipe! How much of the paprika and mixed herbs did you use? Bit of a newbie here 🙂 Thanks!!!
Daniela Apostol
Hi! About one teaspoon of each should do.