Cheesy Ground Beef Skillet Pasta — One Pan, 30 Minutes
If you have ground beef and pasta, dinner is already decided.
This is the recipe for the nights when you've been staring at the fridge for ten minutes and still have no idea what to make. Ground beef goes in the pan, pasta cooks right in the sauce, and cheese melts over the top — all in one skillet, all in about 30 minutes. It tastes like a cheeseburger met a pasta bake and decided to make things easy for you. Expect a hearty, saucy, crowd-pleasing dinner that reheats well tomorrow. No fancy technique, no multiple pots, no thinking. Just dinner.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef — 80/20 works great here
- 8 oz rotini or penne pasta — uncooked
- 1 unit yellow onion — diced
- 3 unit garlic cloves — minced, or 1 tsp garlic powder in a pinch
- 1 unit can diced tomatoes — 14.5 oz, undrained
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
- 0.5 tsp smoked paprika
- 0.5 tsp kosher salt — plus more to taste
- 0.25 tsp black pepper
- 1.5 cup shredded cheddar cheese — sharp cheddar recommended
Method
- 1 Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and diced onion. Cook, breaking the beef into crumbles, until browned and the onion is softened, about 6–7 minutes. Drain excess fat if needed.
- 2 Add the minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
- 3 Stir in the tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Cook for 1 minute to let the paste caramelize slightly.
- 4 Pour in the diced tomatoes (with their juices), beef broth, and water. Stir everything together and bring to a boil.
- 5 Add the uncooked pasta and stir to submerge it in the liquid. Reduce heat to medium, cover the skillet with a lid, and cook for 12–14 minutes, stirring every few minutes to prevent sticking, until the pasta is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.
- 6 Remove from heat. Scatter the shredded cheddar evenly over the top, replace the lid, and let it sit for 2 minutes until the cheese is melted. Serve straight from the skillet.
Variations
- Vegetarian swap — Replace the ground beef with a 15 oz can of drained lentils or a plant-based ground, and swap beef broth for vegetable broth. The result is still hearty and filling.
- Faster swap — Use pre-minced garlic from a jar and a bag of pre-diced frozen onions — skip all the chopping and shave off 5 minutes of prep entirely.
- Spicy version — Add 0.5 tsp red pepper flakes along with the other spices and use pepper jack cheese instead of cheddar for a kick.
Notes
If the mixture looks too dry before the pasta finishes cooking, splash in a bit more water or broth. If it looks too soupy at the end, just let it simmer uncovered for a couple of minutes. Leftovers reheat great with a small splash of water stirred in to loosen the sauce.
Equipment that helps
- Large skillet with a lid — You need enough surface area to cook the pasta flat in the liquid and a lid to trap steam so it actually cooks through.
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