Taco Pasta
The Weeknight Comfort Food You Need
Taco Pasta is one of the best weeknight meals when you want something creamy, comforting, and delicious. It’s made with ground beef, diced tomatoes flavored with green chilis, taco seasoning, and creamy sour cream.
I love using shell pasta as it allows the little pasta cups to be filled with the great flavors of this dish. The whole thing is topped with all your favorite taco toppings!
The recipe card calls for ground beef, but you can easily substitute ground turkey or ground chicken. This recipe is so versatile.
Need Help Finding and Saving The Recipe?
There is a full, printable recipe card at the end of this post and you can also hit the print button for the recipe to come up on one screen. From there you can screenshot this to save it to your phone.
I also have added a Pinterest button that you can use to save this recipe to your Pinterest page. If you would like to follow me on Pinterest, you can find me there as The Tipsy Housewife.
For Those Unfamiliar
If you are unfamiliar with the tomatoes this recipe calls for, I included a picture above. These tomatoes have spice but they are not the spice that burns your mouth.
They add great flavor and texture to this dish. I use these same tomatoes in my Puffy Tacos Recipe.
Pasta Water
When you read the recipe card, you will see that you add some of the pasta water to this recipe. This helps make the recipe nice and creamy and helps every ingredient come together.
I like to use these shells for this recipe, but you can sub any pasta you like or that you have in your pantry.
More Great Toppings
I have a great recipe for a Homemade Guacamole and a great recipe for Restaurant Style Salsa. Both of these will be delicious on top of this taco pasta.
The salsa recipe is one of my most favorites of all time.
The salsa recipe reminds me of a retro restaurant I used to love called Chi-Chi’s. It was a Tex Mex style restaurant that was very popular in the 1980s!
My favorite dish at Chi Chi’s was the steak fajitas.
Maybe I should work on a recipe for them some time…
If you’re looking for a complete boozy outdoor experience, might I suggest pairing this pasta with some margaritas?
Taco Pasta Recipe
Taco Pasta is filled with comforting, amazing flavors of tomatoes, chili, cheese and sour cream. Easy to make when you want a quick and satisfying weeknight meal.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs of Ground Beef
- 1 Medium Yellow Onion, Diced
- 1 Box Of Pasta Shells
- 1 14.5 ounce Sized Can of Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilis
- 1 Packet of Taco Seasoning
- 2 T of Sour Cream, plus 2 more tablespoons for toppings
- 1/2 teaspoon of Chili Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of Cumin
- 2 C of Shredded Taco Cheese, plus more for toppings
- 3 Green Onions, sliced thin
- 1 C of Ready Made Guacamole *homemade recipe linked in post
- 1 C of Ready Made Salsa *homemade recipe linked in post
Instructions
- In a skillet with cooking oil of your choice start cooking your onions.
- Have a pot of water on to boil for the pasta and cook the pasta according to the package.
- When your onions are softened, add your ground beef and cook until no longer pink.
- Add in your can of tomatoes, do not drain the liquid.
- Add your pouch of taco seasoning.
- Let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes while your pasta cooks.
- Drain your pasta, but add 1/3 cup of pasta water to your beef.
- Add the drained pasta to your beef mixture and let simmer in the mixture for ten minutes.
- Turn off heat and stir in the 2 tablespoons of sour cream.
- Mix your additional sour cream with the cumin and chili powder.
- Add in the taco cheese and stir until melted.
- Top the pasta with the seasoned sour cream, green onions, salsa, guacamole, and more cheese.
For another pasta perfect for garden parties, try my BLT Pasta Salad.