Ground Beef Pasta Recipes for All Occasions

There’s never a dull moment when it comes to pasta and ground beef. From flavorful pastas and comforting soups to elaborate casseroles, this match made in heaven is full of culinary potentials that you’ll have an amazing time exploring.

If you want to learn all about the dishes you can make from this combo, check out our list of ground beef pasta recipes.

Check Out Our Most Popular Ground Beef Pasta Recipes

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Instant Pot Goulash Recipe

Even at times you can afford any type of dinner you like, this Instant Pot Goulash can be a godsend. At almost no cost, it exchanges your worries — buried in each spoonful — for cozy, gratifying tastes.

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Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe

When you plan a dish you want everyone to love, Spaghetti Bolognese should come to mind. It’s a time-tested meal that requires little effort yet never fails to impress. The kids will be lining up for seconds.

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Mexican Spaghetti Recipe

Maybe you’re too tired to go all out on dinner. No worries. You’ll only have to do the bare minimum with this recipe. Simply dump the ingredients into one skillet to simmer together, and you’ll have a hearty, flavorsome meal (that tastes like it’s been cooking all day!) in 25 minutes.

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Chili Spaghetti Recipe

Ever pushed the envelope of a simple spaghetti dish? This Chili Spaghetti lets you indulge in a mighty spicy main that’ll set your taste buds ablaze; you won’t settle for anything less fiery after trying it.

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Vegetable Beef Ragu Recipe

This ragu is packed with vegetables simmered in a satisfying, hearty broth. It’s so robust that it carries a life of its own. You’ll undoubtedly want to cling to each spoonful to prolong this experience.

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Stuffed Shells Recipe

This recipe includes conchiglie, a shell-shaped pasta of medium size. We stuffed them with ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan, poured meat sauce, and baked them to a rich, caramelized finish.

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Creamy Tomato Rigatoni Pasta Recipe

Rigatoni is wide, cylindrical pasta with ridges on the exterior. All the better to soak up as much of these savory mushroom and parmesan flavors in each spoonful!

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Meatball Soup Recipe

A good soup almost always disappears by the end of the meal. Make a big batch of this meatball soup; if you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, you can enjoy it the next day.

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Hamburger Soup Recipe

Filled with alliaceous flavors and nutritious veggies, this meat and pasta dish is a weekday lifeline. You’ll suffer no compromise of flavors with this one-pot stew that’s ready in under an hour.

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Beefy Butternut Squash Pasta Recipe

This dish guarantees there’s no better way to enjoy Butternut Squash Pasta. The sweet and nutty after-roast tang is addictive. And once you add the tomato sauce broth, it glosses over the butternut cubes and delivers a bittersweet finished taste.

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Spaghetti and Beef Meatballs Recipe

We love the simplicity and style of Spaghetti and Meatballs. It’s semi-rustic, yet it just cuts it as a classy meal. It’s our idea of an all-purpose dish at its finest.

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Say goodbye to repetitive and plain boring dinners. With diverse ingredients and straightforward methods, these ground beef pasta recipes are exactly what you’ll need for a satisfying, scrumptious, and wholesome meal.

Why You’ll Love These Recipes

They’re Extremely Easy

Pasta and ground beef are straightforward ingredients that require minimum effort, both in preparation and cooking. Combine them and you’ll have a flavorful and irresistible dish in just a few simple steps.

They’re Perfect for All Occasions

With these ground beef pasta recipes being so quick and uncomplicated, you can easily create a dish to enjoy on casual weeknights. However, they would also make a stunning centerpiece for a large gathering or a lavish dinner. No matter the occasion, there’s always a place for a steaming hot dish of ground beef pasta in your meal.

They’re More Diverse Than You Think

Ground beef pasta sounds pretty self-explanatory, but you’ll be surprised to find out there’s more to this combination than the classic pasta. Toss them in the oven for a sizable lasagna or casserole, or cook up a soup to warm yourself up. If you want something different, stuff the meat in large-shell pasta for an unforgettable treat.

Plus, since there are so many pasta shapes out there, you can make the recipes feel brand new each time by switching out the varieties each time you make them. The opportunity for creativity is practically endless.

Things to Make With

Ground beef and pasta are already quite diverse individually, so together, you can expect them to create a wide variety of dishes. Here are the top three that we believe would be a welcome sight at almost any meal:

Classic Pasta

As simple as it sounds, there are actually many different pasta dishes that you can make with ground beef. The two most common sauce choices are cream and tomato sauce, but feel free to get as creative as you want.

There are also a lot of foods you can add to the pasta dish. Almost any vegetable would work or go with sausages for an extra savory taste. Cheeses like cheddar, mozzarella, and provolone are also fantastic additions that will instantly elevate the dish.

Baked Dishes

When you’re in need of an effortless dish that still satisfies a whole crowd, consider baking up lasagna or casserole. Simply layer the ground beef, pasta, veggies, an optional sauce, and a generous amount of cheese and leave them in the oven to cook. You’ll end up with a golden and decadent dish that tastes just as good as it looks.

Soups

A steamy bowl of soup filled to the brim with ground beef, veggies, and some filling pasta is undoubtedly comfort food material. With enough time to simmer, the ingredients will seamlessly blend into one another and result in a rich and hearty mixture. Each spoonful will fill your taste buds with a warmth only homemade food can offer.

What Types of Pasta Work Best for These Recipes?

Depending on the specific dishes and personal preference, different pasta varieties will be suitable for different recipes. We recommend testing them out as much as possible to know precisely what feels right to you.

However, since the pasta world can be pretty vast, we’ve narrowed it down to these specific varieties that are often eaten with ground beef:

Penne

You may already be quite familiar with penne pasta. With its distinctive cylindrical shape, this variety holds the pasta sauce inside its narrow holes. You won’t end up with any flavorless bite since the sauce will be distributed evenly throughout the pieces.

What’s more, with its tender yet slightly chewy bite, this pasta works like a dream with the ground beef’s textured mouthfeel.

Rotini

This pasta’s corkscrew shape gives it more space not only to absorb the sauces but also to hold up the ground beef and any other accompanying toppings. It works great in a regular pasta dish, but also in other adjacent dishes like soup and casseroles. You can make your dish more colorful by using the tri-color version, creating a dish that’s vibrant both in taste and appearance.

Other Varieties

Macaroni, spaghetti, rigatoni, shell pasta, and pappardelle are also popular choices to pair with ground beef. Don’t be afraid to test out many different varieties to find out which you like best. It’s a fun process through and through, so you’ve got nothing to worry about.