Pasta recipes

Italian meat sauce mix is a bulk-batch freezer sauce: hot Italian sausage and ground beef slow-simmered for 8 hours with tomato puree, basil, and hidden broccoli and cauliflower florets. Makes 8 pints to stash.

Easy Mexican chili made in a slow cooker with ground beef, kidney beans, green chiles, and tomatoes. A dump-and-go crockpot chili that simmers 8-10 hours on low heat.

Kahlua chili: ground beef chili spiked with coffee liqueur, served Cincinnati-style over spaghetti with cheddar and onion. The coffee-and-cocoa background note that makes it work.

Ground beef meat crust pizza pie with tomato paste, cheddar, parmesan, oregano, and optional pepperoni. The meat becomes the crust in this low-carb, protein-packed twist on pizza night.

Chili bean tacos stuff hard shells with cumin-spiced sausage, kidney beans, tomato and bell pepper, topped with sour cream. A 30-minute Tex-Mex weeknight dinner.

Ground beef chili with kidney beans, tomato sauce, celery, green pepper, and scallions simmered until thick. A classic weeknight chili topped with cheddar, lettuce, and tortilla chips.

Spicy Indonesian noodles with ground beef, bacon, tomatoes, and authentic seasonings like boemboe nasi goreng and sambal oelek. This one-hour dish tastes even better the next day.

Slow-simmered beef chuck chili with dried red chiles, tomato paste, and kidney beans that rests 24 hours before serving for deep, concentrated flavor.

A slow-simmered Southwestern beef chili with pinto beans, green chilis, jalapeños, and six tablespoons of chili powder. Topped with sharp cheddar and scallions. Tucson tough.

Slow cooker sloppy joes with ground beef, ketchup, tomato paste, Worcestershire, and vinegar. Brown the meat, dump everything in the crock pot, and come home to thick, tangy sandwich filling.

Rugged, no-bean chili made with ground beef and chewy wheat berries simmered in a smoky chile, tomato, and cumin broth. A Southwestern twist on Texas red that's hearty enough to stick to your ribs.

Open-faced pizza sandwiches made with a seasoned beef freezer mix, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and bubbly melted cheese on bread or hamburger buns. Ready in under 20 minutes from freezer to table.

Italian meatball sandwich: pork-and-beef meatballs simmered for an hour in a long-cooked red wine tomato sauce built on salt pork, garlic, basil, and marjoram. Piled in a crusty roll with Parmesan and roasted peppers for a proper Sunday sub.

A bold black bean chili loaded with 3 pounds of lean ground beef, green chilis, and an unexpected spice blend of dry mustard, celery seed, and cumin seed. Thick, meaty, and built for feeding a hungry crowd.

This beefy beanless chili has the makings of a champion, hitting all the right notes with a complex balance of flavors.

Championship-worthy no-bean chili packed with 5 lbs of ground beef, six jalapeños, and a bold herb-and-spice blend simmered low and slow. This big-batch recipe feeds a hungry crowd of 12.