Lunch · Dinner · American

One-pot cheeseburger pasta

Name: One-pot cheeseburger pasta
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 tbsp Vegetable oil; 500g Beef mince; 1 Brown onion; 2 cloves Garlic, crushed; 200g Mature cheddar, grated; 80g Gherkins, chopped; 1 cube Beef stock cube, in 700ml water; 1 tsp Smoked paprika; 2 tbsp Tomato purée; 2 tbsp Tomato ketchup; 2 tsp Dijon mustard; 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce; 300ml Semi-skimmed milk; 400g Macaroni

Everything you want from a cheeseburger, in one pan of macaroni. The gherkins are not optional.

Start to finish: 35 min
Hands-on: 28 min
In the fridge: 3 days
Freezes: Yes

Contains gluten, dairy, celery, mustard, fish

Ingredients

4 portions

1 tbspVegetable oil
500gBeef mince
1Brown onion
2 clovesGarlic, crushed
200gMature cheddar, grated
80gGherkins, chopped
1 cubeBeef stock cube, in 700ml water
1 tspSmoked paprika
2 tbspTomato purée
2 tbspTomato ketchup
2 tspDijon mustard
1 tbspWorcestershire sauce
300mlSemi-skimmed milk
400gMacaroni

Plus salt, pepper and water.

Method

1
Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan or casserole over a high heat. Brown the mince for 8 minutes, breaking it up, until well browned with no pink left.
2
Meanwhile, finely chop the onion, crush the garlic, grate the cheese and chop the gherkins. Crumble the stock cube into 700ml boiling water.
3
Add the onion to the mince and cook for 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in the garlic, paprika and purée for a minute.
4
Stir in the ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, stock, milk and macaroni. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 12 to 14 minutes, stirring often, until the pasta is tender and the sauce has thickened. Add a splash of water if it dries out before the pasta is done.
15 min, mostly hands-off
5
Take off the heat and stir in three quarters of the cheese until melted. Season, scatter over the rest of the cheese and cover for 2 minutes to melt, then top with the gherkins. To batch, cool and portion into tubs with the gherkins packed separately.

On the day

Microwave with a splash of milk, stirring halfway, until piping hot all the way through. Scatter over the gherkins just before eating.

Cook’s tip

The pasta cooks in the sauce, so its starch does the thickening and there is no flour to fuss with. Keep stirring, though, because macaroni loves to stick to the bottom.