Creamy Pasta Bake

I'm sure you've had them too but it was one of those "What the heck am I going to make for dinner?" kind of nights. Somehow against all odds, when I have these nights I can usually pull off something pretty tasty. Between the hectic Easter weekend, and my daughter having a stomach bug today, I was feeling completely unprepared for a spectacular dinner. Luckily, I pulled some ground beef out of the freezer at 6:00am. So I looked at the now thawed ground beef and I asked it, what do you want to be tonight. It told me a Creamy Pasta Bake. HAHA!

Recipe continued after the jump...


From the pantry & fridge I pulled out the following ingredients:
1 LBS ground beef
8 oz Rigatoni pasta
1 cup Traditional Pasta sauce
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese



1. Preheat oven 350°
2. Boil water (with a little salt) for your pasta. Cook your pasta according to the pasta's directions, this rigatoni cooked for 13 mins.
3. Brown the ground beef and drain off the grease.
4. Whisk together the pasta sauce and soup in a large bowl.
5. Mix in the browned beef.
6. Drain pasta and add to a 2 QT baking dish.
7. Pour sauce mix over the pasta.
8. Top with shredded Swiss cheese.
9. Bake about 30 mins to melt and slightly brown the cheese.
10. Let it cool for about 5 mins before serving.


Simple and delicious. Being unprepared I served the pasta bake alone, but next time I'll pair it with some grilled asparagus! YUM! I think it would also be good if it was made with some ground sausage instead of beef, and parmesan instead of swiss.