Creamy Beef Cavatappi
Cavatappi noodles are on my list as one of the best noodles hands down. Furthermore, the texture is perfect to hold up to beefy sauces and all things cheese. Who doesn’t love a quick, easy pasta dish. Creamy Beef Cavatappi is a ground beef recipe that will be on your weeknight dinner table.
Why Creamy Beef Cavatappi?
First, the rich beef sauce with plenty of cream and cheese adds a very comforting flavor. Cavatappi pasta recipes are perfect for weeknight dinners. Hence, this creamy beef cavatappi I like to make mid week for the entire family. It’s also great for large family dinners. Serve it up with bread and dessert for three course meal.
This pasta dish comes together in around 30 minutes or less. Simple ingredients in this dish builds complex flavors. Therefore, this makes the pasta dish perfect comfort food. Above all the fresh herbs bring out the flavor of the meat. Who doesn’t like simple beef dinner recipes.
To thicken the sauce we use wondra flour but it’s not needed. This dish can be thickened by allowing the cream to cook longer or you may use cornstarch in place of the thickening flour we used. Wondra is just my go to when it comes to gravies and sauces. I love to use it for goulash, stews, and simple sauces. Don’t miss out on wondra as an ingredient.
Toppings:
Layering in the cream along with the parmesan and mozzarella cheese in this dish allows the sauce to stick to the cavatappi noodles. Lastly, I love to top this dish off with cracked black pepper. When serving formally the dish can be topped with fresh basil. Toppings are always the finale of the dish. Things like basil and fresh grated Parmesan can make the dish all that more desirable.
Creamy Beef Cavatappi
Ingredients
- 1 lb cavatappi pasta; or pasta of choice
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 white onion; diced
- 10 basil leaves; fresh
- 1 tablespoon garlic
- 2 1/3 cups beef broth
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 4 sprigs of thyme
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pepper
- 1 tablespoon wondra
Instructions
- In a saute pan, add in ground beef, garlic, and onion. Saute until ground beef is browned and onions are tender.
- Pour in beef broth and tomato sauce. Stir well. Set heat to low (4).
- Mix wondra into a 1/3 cup water and stir into the sauce.
- Cook pasta as directed on box.
- Stir in basil and thyme.
- Pour in the heavy cream while stirring.
- Add in parmesan and mozzarella cheese stirring well.
- Top with salt and pepper. Stir.
- Mix in strained cavatappi pasta to the sauce. Top with more pepper and serve.
Notes
Pin Me:
I am making this for sure.
Is there a way this could be mAde in the instant pot?
I am really personally not a fan of pasta in the instant pot. However, that being said the sauce for this is best made stove top. It’s easier and thickens correctly. I have found working with creams in the instant pot on saute mode it’s a struggle to get them to thicken.
can you swap the mozzarella cheese with fontina
Yes, any cheese that melts easily like mozzarella should work nicely.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was sooooo delish! My family couldn’t get enough of it!
Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
This recipe was good, I used cornstarch, but thought there was too much liquid. It thickens ok but I would make a roux next time to have a smooth, creamy sauce to incorporate the cheese. It didn’t melt as well as I wanted. It tasted great though, we all loved it, my husband had two helpings and my 22 month old daughter loved it too!
Wondra is a thickening flour and is different consistency and texture from cornstarch. If your going to use cornstarch for this amount of liquid I would assume you’d need quite a bit. How much did you use? Climate and heat setting could affect the melting of the cheese. Try a higher temp setting next time when you get to the cheese melting step. Thinking of it as making alfredo you want the sauce to be boiling when you add the cheese and you want to fold the cheese in quickly so it breaks down more. Glad you enjoyed the recipe otherwise!
The note on your recipe says that you can replace cornstarch instead of Wondra if needed. I’d assume you’d know the amount possibly needed since you wrote the note? Maybe you should edit the note to say it won’t be the same amount used.
I used exactly the same amount of cornstarch as I did wondra flour. I use cornstarch often as I’m gluten free.