I keep seeing all of these one pot pasta dishes online. They have all been spaghetti and mostly full of veggies that at least one member of my family won’t eat. So, I decided to try it with another dish that I knew my family would eat. This recipe is very similar to the baked penne that I have posted before. It is liked baked ziti, but with penne because our grocery store doesn’t carry whole grain ziti, but they do have whole grain penne. And, white pasta sends Steve’s blood sugar through the roof. Anyway, the big difference is that it is cooked all in one pot. The pasta is cooked right in with the sauce. No boiling and draining. So simple and quick, and just as delicious.
You are going to need a really big pot for this. You could also cut the recipe in half. It serves at least eight as it is. I used a nine inch iron skillet that is three and a half inches deep, and it filled it to the brim. This time I used one pound of ground chicken and one half pound of chicken Italian sausage for the meat, but I really think it would be better with all sausage. My daughter is not fond of Italian sausage and is home from college, so I cut it back a bit. You could also use beef and pork sausage, but you might need to drain the fat. We are trying to keep our red meat to once or twice a week, so we are using chicken wherever we can.
One Pot Penne
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground meat (I used 1 lb. ground chicken and 1/2 lb. chicken Italian sausage, but any combination of these or other ground meats would work.)
- 2 Tbsps. olive oil
- 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 1 6 oz. can tomato paste
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 Tbsps. fresh basil, chopped plus more for garnish
- 4 cups water
- 12 oz. penne pasta or other tubular pasta, uncooked (I used whole grain.)
- 1 15 oz. container ricotta cheese
- 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil over medium in a large pot or skillet that is oven proof. Add the meat and cook, stirring constantly to break up, until brown.
- Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, basil, and water.
- Stir in pasta.
- Bring mixture to a boil and reduce heat so that it is just barely boiling. Cook until pasta is tender. Mine took about 15 minutes.
- Stir in ricotta and Parmesan and continue cooking until heated through.
- Top with mozzarella.
- Place in the oven and turn on the broiler. Watch carefully, so that it doesn’t burn. Leave under the broiler until the cheese is melted and beginning to turn brown.
- Garnish with chopped basil if desired.
Oh goodness, this looks delicious!
Thank you!
You have a diabetic in the family? I’m happy to find a site that has real recipes that are diabetic friendly. My 12yo has t1d.
Yes, my husband has Type 2 diabetes that easily gets way out of control. All of my recipes are not diabetic friendly, especially the older ones before he was diagnosed, but there are a greater percentage every day. I still make a good portion of sweets for my young adult children and his grand children, but what we eat daily is usually diabetic friendly and I include those recipes on the blog as much as possible.
Thank you for this great recipe! I always use 1 lb. of pasta. Could you please tell me how much more water to use to compensate? Thanks! Gloria
Obviously, I have not tried it, but proportionally speaking 4 cups of water for 12 oz. of pasta equals 5 1/3 cups for 16 oz. of pasta. Also, just a caution, the boxes that used to buy that were a pound have been reduced to 12 oz. sometime in the last few years, so do check the box just in case.
This looks so yummy! Thank you for sharing with explicit directions too!
You are very welcome!
I was looking for something different to do with penne and came across your recipe. Looks delicious and will definitely try – thanks
How many servings does this make?
It serves eight.
Just made this recepe…it came out really good enough for 2 generous casseroles
Would it be possible to get these quantities in metric measurements?
So sorry I did not get to this sooner, for some reason my comment have not been showing up for me. I do not know the metric measurements off the top of my head, but there are formulas you can work out or and conversion programs where you just input the amount, and it changes it for you.
Could you make it and freeze it?
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