This easy and quick one pot creamy ground beef pasta is always a go to on those busy week nights. It comes together quickly, about 30 minutes, doesn’t dirty a bunch of dishes, and my kids gobble it up with no complaints. Now that sounds like a WIN WIN dinner to me! This meal can also be easy modified if you don’t have everything on hand. You can use any preferred noodle, add any veggies that you’d like, omit the tomatoes if you don’t have any.. just add some extra broth to make sure the noodles are covered while you’re cooking them. Don’t have cheddar cheese? No problem.. mozzarella or any other cheese will work just fine! It may change the end result slightly in flavor but I haven’t found a cheese I don’t love with my pasta.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 LB Ground beef (80/20 works well) you can do less meat if you’d like but I like to make sure there’s plenty of protein in my meals.
- 1 LB Pasta (The smaller noodles work best for this kind of recipe)
- 1 Onion, diced
- 3 Cloves garlic (or 1 Tbs. of minced garlic)
- 2 Cups of Beef broth ( I cheat and use 2 cups of water and 2 tsp of beef bouillon)
- 2 Cups of Whole milk (any milk will do just fine)
- 2 (14oz.) Cans of Diced tomatoes
- 1 Block (8oz.) of Cream cheese
- 1 Cup Cheddar cheese, shredded (mozzarella or any cheese will be fine)
- 1 Tbl. Italian seasoning
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Parsley to sprinkle on top (very optional, I just love how it makes it look before serving)
Directions
- Grab a large skillet or a medium-large size pot
- Add ground beef and diced onions. Cook over medium-low heat until ground beef is thoroughly cooked and onions are translucent. Make sure to break up the ground beef into small pieces as it cooks with your spoon/spatula.
- Drain most of the grease in the pan from the ground beef.
- Stir in minced garlic and Italian seasoning to the ground beef mixture and cook on low until fragrant. 1-2 minutes.
- Pour in the beef broth, cans of diced tomatoes (tomatoes and their juices), and milk.
- Stir everything together and increase the heat to high. Bring it to a boil.
- Once boiling, add the pasta to the pan and reduce your heat back down to medium-low.
- Give it all a good stir and make sure all the noodles are being covered by liquid. If you chose to omit the tomatoes you may need to add either extra broth or milk to the pan.
- Cover the pan to let the noodles simmer until tender (12-15 minutes). Make sure to stir the noodles every few minutes to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of your pot and they are cooking evenly.
- Test the noodles by taking one out to check if it is to your preferred doneness. Cook a couple minutes longer if needed.
- Once pasta is cooked shut off the stove and add the cream cheese a spoonful at a time. (small chunks help it to melt down faster). Stir until fully melted.
- Add the cheddar cheese and stir that in as well until melted.
- Garnish top with parsley if desired, then serve & enjoy!
