Simple and Family-Friendly, No Boil, One Pot Pasta Bake

This simple and family-friendly no boil, one pot pasta bake is sure to become a family favorite. It requires just a little hands-on time and by just using one pot, it’s quick to clean up!

The dinner hour is approaching and you don’t have a plan. You need an easy dinner. Your kitchen is well-stocked with ingredients (most of the time), but you are looking for something simple, with minimal ingredients, maybe even something you can add into your recipe repertoire. You do a quick Pinterest search, but all of the recipes you find call for store-bought sauces or include ingredients that you don’t keep on hand – like ricotta – delicious, but you don’t have it.

I got you, friend. Here’s tonight’s dinner – a delicious, cheesy, pasta bake. It takes just one pot. It doesn’t require boiling the pasta. It’s simple and easy. It’s made with whole-food ingredients that you have on hand between your pantry, your freezer, and your fridge. Go grab a pound or two of ground meat, get it thawing, then make yourself a cup of tea and cuddle that little love of yours, because dinner is simple tonight.

I’ve made a baked macaroni and cheese for years. It’s a family favorite and it’s often requested. This past winter, though, I started branching out more into the world of baked pastas. I remember loving a baked mostaccioli that my mom used to make and I wanted to replicate it. The problem with most baked pastas, however, is that there are so many steps. And so many pots! First you have to boil the pasta, then make the sauce, then put it in a 9×13 pan to bake it. I wanted a recipe that was simpler and that used just one pot.

Now, I grow most of the tomatoes that we use in our kitchen and can them at the end of each summer to preserve them. I can stewed tomatoes, plain sauce, pasta sauce, soup, and ketchup. The pasta sauce I make is a simple spaghetti sauce that I like to reserve for quick spaghetti nights when I need to get dinner on the table in 30 minutes. So, when I recipe calls for a jar of pasta sauce, I turn to my jars of stewed tomatoes and make up my own version. Sometimes this turns out well, sometimes its mediocre at best.

Because of this, I wanted to perfect the baked cheesy/tomato pasta by using cans of tomatoes and a bit of plain tomato sauce. I also wanted a recipe that was very customizable to what I had on hand at the time and was super easy to clean up. That’s where this recipe was born. I hope you enjoy it and make it your own!

Quality Ingredients Matter

After years of making food for my family, I’ve found that one of the most important aspects to making delicious food is sourcing quality ingredients. The cheese you use matters. The milk you use matters. The meat you use matters too. We source all of our meat locally. My husband is a hunter, so we often have 2-3 deer in the freezer each winter. The past two years we have also purchased a quarter beef cow from a local farmer. Some years we have local pork in the freezer. Other years we buy it from the local food co-op. From our own homestead we also fill the freezer with goose and chicken and this fall we will hopefully be filling it with rabbit as well!

For this recipe, I opted for ground beef, but any ground meat or combination will work. I even added a tablespoon of blended chicken liver for added nutritional value. (I left that out of the recipe, but feel free to add it in as you are cooking the meat.) For the milk, I used whole raw milk that I get from a local farmer. Whole milk makes for a creamy pasta – almost as if you had that ricotta on hand.

My go-to pasta right now is Azure Standard’s Einkorn pasta. Einkorn is an ancient wheat that is easier to digest than most modern wheat varieties. I like it for this purpose, for the flavor, and also for the cost. It’s been a great option for us.

When possible, I buy whole milk mozzarella at our food co-op from a local dairy. It’s so flavorful and packed full of good fats. For cheese I always buy it by the block and shred it myself. It’s an added step, but I prefer that to pre-shredded cheese both for flavor and the lack of added preservatives.

The Fabulous Dutch Oven

For this recipe, I used a large enamel-coated cast iron dutch oven. I LOVE using my dutch ovens. I have 3 of them – small, medium, and large. My small and medium ones are Le Creusets that we got secondhand a few years ago. This year Dan got me a 7.5 quart one from Lodge and it’s been a great (and economical!) addition to my kitchen. Using a dutch oven is what allows this recipe to be made in just one pot. Saute the onion and brown the meat on the stove, then add all the other ingredients, cover, and put it into the oven to bake! So simple. So easy.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! If you do, will you save it, share it, and/or rate it?

Simple and Family Friendly, No Boil, One Pot Pasta Bake

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp quality fat of choice (lard, tallow, bacon grease, butter, olive oil, coconut oil, etc.)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1-2 lbs ground meet of choice (beef, pork, venison, Italian sausage, etc.)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp dried oregano (or 1 tbsp fresh)
• pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (or 1 tsp of garlic powder)
• 32 oz canned tomatoes (stewed, diced, or crushed)
• 8 oz tomato sauce (plain or Italian)
• 1 cup milk of choice
• 1 lb short pasta of choice (penne, shells, fusillini, casarecce, etc.)
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (or whatever cheese you have on hand), divided
• Fresh herbs such as parsley, oregano, or chives, chopped for garnish (optional).

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Heat a medium to large dutch oven over medium heat on the stove.
3. Once the pan is hot, melt fat.
4. Add onions and saute until translucent (5-7 min).
5. Add meat and cook until mostly browned (7-10 min).
6. As meat cooks, season with salt and pepper. Add oregano and red pepper flakes, if using.
7. Add garlic or garlic powder and cook for 1 minute.
8. Add in tomatoes, tomato sauce, milk, and dried pasta. Stir to combine.
9. Cover and bake for 40 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and check the pasta for doneness. If the pasta is not yet ready, cover and return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes.
11. Once the pasta is ready, stir in half of the cheese and then top the pasta with the remaining cheese.
12. Return the dutch oven to the oven uncovered and bake or broil until the cheese has browned.
13. Remove from oven. Top with chopped fresh herbs, if desired. Serve and enjoy!