This recipe for spaghetti with meat sauce cooks in – you guessed it – just one pot! And you only need THREE INGREDIENTS! Dried spaghetti cooks directly in a mixture of ground beef, jarred sauce, and water, resulting in an almost absurdly easy dinner with just one pot to clean. As a bonus, all the starch from the pasta remains in the sauce, creating a luxuriously thick sauce that clings to every piece of spaghetti – no watery spaghetti here!
One-pot pasta recipes are some of my favorite things to make on busy weekdays. Of course there is the advantage of only having one pot to clean. But it also takes a lot of effort out of cooking pasta: no draining, no saving pasta water for mixing the sauce, and it’s a much more practical approach.
I’ve shared some one-pot pasta recipes here before: One-Pot Pasta with Tacos, One-Pot Sausage and Spinach Pasta, and One-Pot Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccolini. I’m excited to add these incredibly simple spaghetti with meat sauce to the collection, especially since you only need THREE ingredients to make them!
Ingredients needed and substitutions
To prepare these one-pot spaghetti with ragù you only need three ingredients!
- Spaghetti – the dried canned kind, not fresh. And honestly, cheaper brands work great here. The more expensive brands tend to have more starch, which is great for traditional pasta dishes, but since all the starch stays in the pot, I find it can be a little *too* starchy with some of those pasta brands.” more elaborate”. Barilla is my choice for decent quality pasta without too much starch! You can also use another pasta shape – see more on this below.
- Jarred marinara sauce – or homemade marinara sauce, if you want! I almost always go to Rao’s for the jarred stuff.
- Ground beef – since everything fits in one pot, I recommend a leaner ground beef, like 90% or 93% lean. This way it won’t be too greasy. You can also use ground turkey or ground sausage for this recipe, or a vegan/vegetarian ground beef substitute if you prefer.
That’s all! You’ll also need some pantry staples: olive oil, salt, and pepper. If desired, you can garnish with a little parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil, parsley and/or chopped red pepper.
How to prepare One Pot spaghetti with meat sauce
First, brown the ground meat in a little olive oil, breaking it up until it is crumbled and fully cooked. Add a jar of marinara sauce, salt, a little water and the dried spaghetti. It’s easier if you break the spaghetti in half so that it fits in the pot (gasp! how horrible! calm down, pasta police). Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. When cooking is almost finished, cover and leave to rest with the heat off to complete cooking. That’s all!
Tips and tricks
- If the pasta seems a little dry towards the end of cooking you can add more water. I’ve found that the exact amount of water doesn’t really matter with this recipe – you should be able to watch it pretty effectively, and the exact amount may depend on the brand of pasta used.
- Make sure you finish cooking the pasta with the heat off. Pasta in a pot tends to stick, but turning off the heat and covering the pot to let the pasta finish can prevent it from sticking towards the end!
Can I use another type of pasta besides spaghetti?
Safe! I’ve found that some pastes tend to absorb more or less depending on the shape, but not to an extent where it matters much. This can happen due to the shape of the pasta but also with different brands. The general ratio rule for a pot of pasta it is a 1:2 ratio of paste to liquid. This recipe calls for 16 oz. dried spaghetti and 32 oz. of water. So you should be good at following this recipe to use other pasta shapes too. Keep in mind that you may need to add a little extra water if it seems a little dry towards the end – simple fix!
Other single-portion recipes
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Spaghetti in a pot with meat sauce
These spaghetti with meat sauce are cooked in one pot, with just three main ingredients! Since you’re not draining anything, not only is this recipe incredibly easy and convenient, but the starch from the pasta stays in the pot, thickening the sauce to a luxurious consistency that clings to every pasta. You’ll love this simple basic recipe that can be made in just 25 minutes!
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Portions: 6 portions
Calories: 462kcal
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ingredients
- 1 table spoon olive oil
- 1 lb. Ground beef or other minced meat of your choice, see notes
- 24 oz. marinara sauce in jar I used Rao’s
- 4 cups waterfall
- 16 oz. pasta or other pasta, see notes
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt more if necessary
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper more if necessary
- cracked black pepper, parmesan, olive oil and/or crushed red pepper to serve, optional
Instructions
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In a large, heavy pot with a lid, such as a Dutch oven, brown the meat 1 pound ground beef In the 1 tablespoon olive oil until fully cooked and crumbled.
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Add the 24 oz jar marinara sauce 4 cups of water (one and a third jar, if you want to use the marinara sauce jar for measuring – no need for exact precision here), AND ½ teaspoon kosher salt into the pot and mix together. Add the 16 ounce pasta into the pot, breaking the noodles in half as you go. Push the noodles down to submerge them in the liquid as best you can (it’s okay if they don’t submerge completely).
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Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes total, stirring every five minutes (pliers work well for this)and adding more water towards the end if it seems dry. Taste to test the cooking of the pasta. At this point it should be almost finished. Turn off the heat, cover and leave to rest for another 5-10 minutes, to complete cooking and allow the sauce to be absorbed.
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Serve with cracked black pepper, parmesan, olive oil and/or crushed red pepperif desired.
Notes
- Feel free to use another type of ground meat – turkey or sausage, or a vegetable substitute for ground meat will work.
- If you want you can substitute another pasta shape – it may need a little more or less water, but not so much that you can’t adjust the flow rate as needed while cooking!
- This was made with regular semolina spaghetti. I haven’t tried a one-pot pasta recipe with other types of pasta, such as wholemeal, chickpea or gluten-free. If anyone tries this variety with another type of pasta, be sure to let us know in the comments how it turns out for you!
Nutrition
Calories: 462kcal | Carbohydrates: 63G | Protein: 26G | Fat: 11G | Saturated fats: 4G | Polyunsaturated fats: 1G | Monounsaturated fat: 5G | Trans fats: 0.5G | Cholesterol: 49mg | Sodium: 786mg | Potassium: 749mg | Fiber: 4G | Sugar: 6G | Vitamin A: 491UI | C vitamin: 8mg | Soccer: 41mg | Iron: 4mg
Nutrition information disclaimer
The nutritional information provided is my best estimate and does not include added sodium from flavoring seasoning, any optional ingredients, and does not take into account brands. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
