The Crazy Cooking Challenge is upon us again and this time around it’s spaghetti for the making. My heart sank a little when I saw that was the dish to prepare this month.
I know a lot of people absolutely love spaghetti but Joel and I just aren’t big fans of red sauce. It’s one of those meals that I really have to be in the mood to eat. And then it has to have ground beef or Italian sausage which sadly are off limits for the next 31 days.
This no meat thing has been hard, not as hard as I thought it would be but still difficult. I can’t get bacon off my brain. Mmmm, bacon. Ok, so I got distracted…back to the post.
I wanted to find an easy, weeknight option that would still be tasty without meat. I have made a one-pot spaghetti from a cookbook many times that is very similar and really enjoyed it so I figured that this would be a winner.
I searched around the blog world and found this recipe over at Recipe Shoebox. And oh my gosh, I am so glad I stumbled upon it! There are some recipes that sound incredible…just look at the dessert index, it is ridiculous in such a good way!
This spaghetti was a great, easy meal that was done in about 25 minutes (if you make it with ground beef or sausage it will take a bit longer). You can’t beat that. And the ingredient list was all staples that I always have in my pantry. I was a little worried that adding that much water would dilute the sauce but it was surprisingly tomato-y and flavorful. I might even add more basil next time around but I kind of have a thing for basil.
Make sure to check out everyone’s awesome spaghetti recipes at the linky tool link below!
- 1 lb. ground beef or ground sausage (I left this out since we aren't eating meat right now)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large can (32-ounces) chicken broth (4 cups)
- 3 cups water
- 2 cans (6-ounces each) tomato paste
- 2 tsp. dried oregano
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1 box (12-ounces) dried spaghetti, broken
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- In a large saucepan cook the ground beef and/or sausage, onion, and garlic until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain. Or, if making this vegetarian like I did, add a little olive oil to a large saucepan and saute onion and garlic until tender.
- Stir in the broth, water, tomato paste, oregano, basil, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Add the broken spaghetti, a little at a time, stirring constantly. Return to a boil; reduce heat. Boil gently, uncovered, for 17-20 minutes or until spaghetti is tender and sauce is of the desired consistency, stirring frequently. Serve with Parmesan cheese.
March 7, 2012 at 11:22 am
I love the convenience of the one pot. I made my spaghetti meatless too, making “meat”balls out of chickpeas. Kudos to you giving up meat for Lent; I could never do it. We tried giving up desserts, but there’s been a bit of cheating going on. Shame on us!
March 7, 2012 at 3:00 pm
Love the easy “one pot” part of this recipe. Nice photo too.
I hope you’ll stop by and visit my CCC – Spaghetti Pie
🙂
ButterYum
PS – I think your blog hop linky thing isn’t working properly.
March 7, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Thanks, I’ve really been trying to improve my photography skills! Sadly, that is the way the blog hop linky appears on free wordpress sites. The first time I did a challenge I thought I entered something wrong but that’s just the way it looks when you don’t pay on wordpress 🙁
March 7, 2012 at 3:07 pm
That does seem like a lot of water/chicken stock. Maybe because it was tomato paste and not any other kind of tomatoes it could take that much water since it is super-concentrated flavor.
March 7, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Your spaghetti looks like it’s different colors! Did you use a special kind!!??
#29
March 7, 2012 at 5:46 pm
I did…I forgot to mention that I used veggie tri-colored spaghetti noodles.
March 7, 2012 at 8:48 pm
I love the idea of a one pot meal.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my CCC entry: Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter.
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
March 7, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Great minds think alike! Love your choice!
March 8, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Simple & Easy! FUN! 🙂
March 9, 2012 at 10:12 am
Who doesn’t love a one pot meal! Yum!
Jen #19
March 11, 2012 at 8:42 pm
Hope you are having a great week end and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day and Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
August 2, 2015 at 5:04 am
[…] *One Pot Spaghetti pictured above. […]