Easy Pasta Bake comes together in minutes with lots of hearty beef, cheese and more. This is freezer friendly, inexpensive and all around a great meal!
Easy Pasta Bake
This delicious Italian dinner is so easy and can be whipped up in just minutes. Your family will love this meal and you will love how simple it is.
If you are super busy like we are, this is a great meal to throw together during busy weeknights. Anyone can make this and the entire family will love it!
Each bite is so creamy with all the blends of cheese and the tomato sauce is delicious with the pasta and ground beef. This is so filling and easy to feed a crowd or large family.
What can you serve with this easy pasta bake recipe?
We often serve a simple salad with this meal. It is quick and easy and goes great with the pasta.
You could also try Roasted Green Beans or learn how to steam broccoli in the microwave for a super easy veggie side dish.
Keep it simple and enjoy! If you have a few extra minutes, try this Garlic Bread Cheese Sticks Recipe.
The pasta sauce is so amazing and we all love to dip the bread sticks into it. Yum! You will want to get every last drop.
Tips for making pasta bake with ground beef:
One of our favorite time saving tips is to use a small food chopper or processor to quickly and easily chop the onions. If you do not have one of these, I highly recommend them.
They are such a time saver. I usually just chop the entire vegetable and freeze what I don’t need.
It’s so nice to be able to just take diced onion out of the freezer for recipes. This is how I meal prep. It’s so quick and easy and helps get dinner on the table fast.
Learn how to freeze peppers and how to freeze onions and you will save so much time in the kitchen!
The recipe calls for onion but sometimes we also add bell peppers. It adds even more flavor!
Tips for making a pasta bake:
This makes a lot so if you don’t need all of it at once, you can put this is two smaller containers. You can use two 9X9 pans with the mixture.
Bake 1 and freeze 1 for later. This is perfect for enjoying now and having one for later if you do not think you will eat it all.
We love to cook once and eat twice.
We have a big family so we always eat the entire thing. So I like double the recipe and make one for now and one for the freezer.
This recipe is perfect in a 9×13 casserole dish. The ones with the lid are really handy if you are taking this dish somewhere.
I use the disposable pans for the one I put in the freezer. It doesn’t take any more work and you have a great meal for later.
That also helps with clean up on those busy nights. This dish is also perfect to take to potluck dinners or to someone recovering from surgery or with a new baby.
It’s nice to just be able to toss the dish. Plus, they don’t have to worry about trying to get it back to you.
Do you cook pasta before baking?
In this recipe, yes. Simply cook the pasta and mix with the sauce before baking. Easy!
Let’s make baked penne pasta with cheese!
What ingredients do you need to make easy pasta bake?
- pasta- use your favorite.
- ground beef
- diced onion
- spaghetti sauce
- sour cream
- Mozzarella cheese
- garlic salt and Italian seasoning to taste
How do you make baked penne pasta with mozzarella?
First, cook pasta according to package directions.
Next, brown beef in a large skillet with onion and seasonings.
Drain grease from meat. Add spaghetti sauce to skillet and simmer on low.
Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).
Drain pasta. Spray 9X13 pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Now, it is time to start layering all of the yummy ingredients! Layer ½ of the pasta, ½ the sauce mix in the pan. Place ½ cup sour cream in dollops on top of the sauce mix.
Use the back of your spoon to spread out sour cream over the top of the sauce mix. Sprinkle with 4 ounces of cheese.
Repeat layering process.
Bake at 350 F for until cheese is melted. So easy! Keep reading for the full recipe.
Try this easy pasta bake no meat version!
Whether it is meatless Monday or you are trying to reduce the grocery budget, try this recipe without meat. It is really amazing and no one will miss the meat because of all of the cheese.
This is a great meal to make your own. Just use what you have! We have even made baked pasta with sausage because it was on sale at the grocery store.
Since this meal is so easy to change or adapt to what you have on hand, it will save you time and money. In fact, I cut our grocery bill by 50% off by following these 8 Tips for for Saving Money on Groceries by Menu Planning!
Save that money for a family vacation or maybe just some wiggle room in the budget. Easy recipes like this keep my family happy and my grocery budget in good shape. This is how I keep our grocery budget reasonable.
Plus, being able to throw this together quickly and easily really helps to avoid the temptation of getting take out. Everyone is much happier with a delicious home cooked meal anyway.
Print this easy pasta bake recipe below:
Easy Pasta Bake Recipe
Ingredients
- 16 oz of your favorite pasta (we used penne)
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ diced onion
- 1 can of spaghetti sauce
- 1 cup sour cream
- 8 ounces grated Mozarella cheese
- garlic salt and Italian seasoning to taste
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions.
- Brown beef in a large skillet with onion and seasonings.
- Drain grease from meat. Add spaghetti sauce to skillet and simmer on low for 5-10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).
- Drain pasta. Spray 9X13 pan with nonstick cooking spray. Layer ½ of the pasta, ½ the sauce mix in the pan. Place ½ cup sour cream in dallops on top of the sauce mix. Use the back of your spoon to spread out sour cream over the top of the sauce mix. Sprinkle with 4 ounces of cheese. Repeat layering process. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.
- This makes a lot so if you don’t need all of it at once, you can put this is two smaller containers (like 2 – 9X9’s). Bake 1 and freeze 1 for later. Enjoy!
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We made this and it turned out great. This is now part of our meal rotation.