This super easy pasta dish is made from chickpea penne pasta, a jar of your favorite marinara, lean ground beef and plenty of cheese! This is one of my family’s most requested meals. My granddaughter has asked for it for two years straight for her first day of school dinner. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 16 oz chickpea penne pasta (I used 2 (8 oz) boxes of Eat Banza penne), prepared according to package directions
- 1/2 jar of your favorite marinara (Most smaller jars of marinara come in the 15.5 oz size – I use half & freeze the rest. For this recipe I used Rao’s)
- 3/4 lb lean ground beef
- 1/2 cup chopped white onion
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup pasta water
- 4 cups shredded Monterrey Jack & Cheddar
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in a large pot. Drain the pasta, and reserve 1/2 cup pasta water.
- Brown ground beef and onion in the same pot you used to cook the pasta. Break apart into to small pieces. Drain excess liquid.
- Add the marinara to beef mixture. Mix thoroughly.
- Add 1 cup of the cheese, the reserved pasta water and the drained pasta to the beef mixture. Fold together.
- Grease a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Place mixture in the dish and top with remaining cheese. Refrigerate, if making ahead. Can be store for 1-2 days.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If baking immediately, bake for 20 minutes covered. Remove cover and bake for 10 more minutes, or until top is slightly browned. If making after it is refrigerated, let it sit out for 30-45 minutes and then bake. You may have to bake it a bit longer if refrigerated.
is there nutrition information for this recipe?
No sorry, I don’t do that for my recipes as I’m not confident the information would be correct.