Making Fusilli with Meat Sauce

A one-pot dinner like fusilli with beef sauce is ideal.

Fusilli, in this example, is cooked in a straightforward beef sauce. A simple pantry staple becomes great with a few tweaks!

Reasons We Adore This Recipe

Quick This quick Fusilli with Meat Sauce meal is the ideal recipe when you’re short on time because it takes only 30 minutes to prepare.

Easy With a few straightforward changes, this recipe transforms canned spaghetti sauce to make it taste handmade (of course you can skip the jarred pasta sauce and start with homemade marinara if you prefer).

Yummy Everyone in the family enjoys this simple meat sauce recipe, and there are never any complaints at the dinner table.

Ingredients/Variations

FUSILLI Fusilli’s twists and turns trap the sauce for the ideal bite.

Use any medium-sized pasta, including cheese tortellini, bowties, rotini, and penne! Or finish any cooked pasta that is left over in the fridge.

SAUCE Jarred sauce is used in this as a shortcut! It tastes handmade with a dash of red wine, some onion, garlic, and herbs!

Alternatives: You can use any ground meat you have on hand in place of the ground beef. Use ground chicken, pig, or Italian sausage as an alternative.

Lacking red wine? If using ground chicken, replace the chicken stock with beef broth and combine it with marinara sauce or any other tomato sauce you may already have in your pantry.

Is pasta sauce absent? Use tomato paste and sauce together with a small amount of onion and garlic powder (and a teaspoon of sugar if needed).

CHEESE Without some cheese, no pasta is complete! I like using mozzarella and parmesan in this dish, but you may use any cheese you have on hand. For a little heat, consider cheddar cheese or pepper jack.

Making Fusilli in a Meat Sauce

1. Drain the grease after browning the beef and onion.
2. Simmer red wine after adding. the rest of the components
3. Fusilli with Meat Sauce should be cooked until it is al dente; do not rinse!
4. Stir everything together until it’s heated, then top with some parmesan.

Serve with cheese on top and homemade garlic bread on the side to mop up the flavorful beef sauce.

Advice for Always Making Perfect Pasta

• Cooking the pasta only until al dente will prevent it from overcooking and becoming too soft because it will be simmering in the sauce.
• Use heavily salted water to make pasta. Oil will naturally float to the top of the water, so there is no need to add any to it.
• After cooking, don’t rinse the pasta because the starches will assist the sauce stick. If necessary, reserve a small amount of the pasta water that has been drained to thin your sauce.
• Refrigerate leftovers for up to four days. Just whisk, reheat, and garnish before serving with a bit more cheese!

1. Over medium-high heat, brown the meat, onion, and garlic in a deep skillet until no pink is visible. Remove fat.
2. Cook pasta in salted water just until al dente while the beef is browning. Do not rinse after draining.
3. Italian spice and red wine are stirred in. 3 minutes should be enough time for it to disappear. For a few more minutes, add the sauce and simmer. Add the cooked pasta and boil for an additional two to three minutes, or until well warm.
4. Add cheeses, then plate.

Notes

We use fusilli for this dish, but any pasta would work. Try bowtie pasta, rotini, or penne.

As the beef sauce simmers, the spaghetti noodles continue to cook until they are just al dente.

Ground pork, chicken, or Italian sausage can all be used in place of ground beef.
Absent red wine? Replace with a little beef broth.

Is pasta sauce absent? Use tomato paste and sauce together with a small amount of onion and garlic powder (and a teaspoon of sugar if needed).

Nutrition