Recipe: One Skillet Pasta

Have you ever come into your kitchen, dreading not the actual cooking of dinner, but instead the cleaning up afterwards? Have you ever moaned about how many pots and pans get dirtied just trying to make a simple pasta dish?

I have.  So when I found a recipe that dirtied one and only one skillet, but gets me a fabulous pasta dinner, I copied it into my homemade cook book faster than Speedy Gonzalez.  I use this as a meal anytime I want a break from doing a huge load of dishes.  I also began to teach my son how to make this, because it's that easy.

One Skillet Pasta

Ingredients:
1 lb. of ground beef
2 c. of hot water
26 oz. of spaghetti sauce
3 c. of  some other small pasta, uncooked
1 c. of ricotta cheese
1 c. of mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Cook the ground beef in a skillet.  Drain out any excess fat.
2. Add the water and spaghetti sauce to the beef, mix together, and heat until boiling.
3. Add the pasta, turn the heat down to a simmer, and cover.  
4. Cook for 15 - 20 minutes, until the pasta is tender.
5. Add the ricotta cheese, stirring to incorporate.  Cook for an additional 5 minutes.
6. Stir half the mozzarella into the mixture.  Spread the rest of the cheese over the top. Cover the skillet one more time, and wait until the cheese melts before serving.