Enjoy this taco pasta casserole with my spicy Jalapeño Mule Mocktail, a classic Moscow Mule. or a glass of agua fresca.
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★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★
This 5-ingredient, cheesy taco pasta casserole made with salsa is one of those tried and true recipes you can doctor up according to what you have on hand or enjoy it as an easy weeknight dinner without all the extras.
This taco pasta bake is absolutely delicious in its basic form, but it's also really versatile.
Enjoy it with Taco Toppings
I'm going to show you how to make this taco pasta casserole in its simplest 5-ingredient form and then I'll give you some ideas for ways to change it up — make it healthier, fancier, and even yummier but adding toppings.
Toppings are totally optional. They're a way to customize this dish and dress it up which is nice if you make this for dinner regularly. You can change it up a little each time.
Try it Creamy
This simple yet popular casserole can be made creamy for a fun twist. If you make this dish a lot, an easy way to mix it up is by stirring in some cream. You can do this by adding sour cream, a splash of heavy cream or stir in cream cheese. Go with what you have or what sounds good.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
This dish is so simple using just 5 ingredients (plus water to thin the sauce)!
Here's everything you need to make this Taco Pasta Casserole:
- Pasta shells. Or any type of pasta you'd like! I like the shells because little bits of seasoned ground beef and sauce get tucked up inside the shells creating a really nice texture.
- Ground beef. You can also use ground chicken or turkey).
- Taco seasoning. You can buy 1oz packets of seasoning or buy taco seasoning in bulk.
- Salsa. Choose your favorite brand and style!
All salsa is certainly not created equal so depending on what salsa you choose, this can really change the flavor and texture of the whole dish.
A thicker salsa will make more of a chunky, less saucy casserole. Whereas a thinner, more liquidy, restaurant-style salsa will give you more sauce.
My favorite is Tostito's Restaurant style salsa. Or sometimes I'll go with fresh made salsa. You could even use pico de gallo or salsa verde if you really want to mix things up. Have some fun experimenting to see what you and your family like best. - Mexican cheese blend. You can usually find a few different packaged blends of Mexican, "Fiesta" blend or Taco style cheeses already shredded and ready to go. Any blend works! Some have added spices. Go with whatever floats your boat!
You'll add water to thin the sauce out. If you prefer a creamy sauce, read on...
Optional Ingredients for Creamy Sauce
You can add in sour cream, milk OR cream cheese to make the sauce creamy.
You can replace some or all of the water with milk, half and half or heavy cream for a lightly creamy sauce.
Sour cream or cream cheese with give you a richer, creamier sauce. You can thin it out with water or milk.
★ How to Make this Recipe ★
This taco pasta casserole is so easy to make! You just need to toss 5 ingredients together and heat essentially.
This an easy pasta recipe that's also delicious and continually receives excellent reviews on Pinterest. I think you'll love it too!
- Cook the ground beef.
- Cook the pasta shells al dente (1 minute less than the recommended boil time on the package) and drain.
- Add shells to casserole dish then add taco seasoning and water.
- Layer with salsa.
- Layer with cheese.
- Bake until cheese is melted and sauce it bubbly.
If you want a creamier sauce, add sour cream or cream cheese.
To bake or not to bake. To save time, you can make this entirely on the stovetop, just stir in the cheese at the end. I have included an option to sprinkle cheese on top and bake this whole casserole just for a prettier presentation. Say, if you're having people over for dinner. So, your choice how much effort you want to put into this. 😉
Check out the video beneath the recipe (below) to watch step-by-step how to make this pasta casserole.
★ Optional Toppings ★
Adding toppings is a great way to change up this taco casserole and make it into almost a brand new dish. There are a lot of extras you can add that go well with this Taco Pasta Bake!
Try these yummy extras: shredded lettuce or other leafy greens, diced tomatoes, sour cream, black olives, onion (red or white), fresh salsa, salsa verde, pico de gallo, guacamole or avocado, corn, black or refried beans, sauteed peppers, lime juice, cilantro, and/or pickled jalapeños.
Anything you'd put on a taco works!!
★ Substitutions ★
Try different types of meat. Try using shredded rotisserie chicken, ground turkey, steak, or cauliflower-walnut "taco meat" instead of ground beef.
Want to make this vegetarian? Try adding in refried beans or quinoa in addition to or instead of some of the meat for a vegetarian option.
Use any type of pasta. Try using different shaped pasta to change the texture. Experiment and find what you like best. I used shells but you could use elbow macaroni, rotini or even spaghetti noodles! Heck, you could even try using rice.
Change up the cheese. Try different cheeses. You could use a blend of cheese, Cotija (a crumbly Mexican cheese), melty queso, etc.
Try different salsas. I really love fresh or restaurant style salsa but you may love chunky or salsa verde. Any salsa works! You could even make your own salsa.
Like a little heat? Spice it up some with a few dashes of hot sauce, chili powder and/or some cayenne pepper.
Add some extras into the bake itself. For example, corn, beans, peppers, green chilies, etc. would all mix into the sauce pretty well vs. using them as toppings.
★ Tips & FAQs ★
Nope! It's very good just by itself. That's really the beauty of this time-saving dish. It's delicious on its own as an easy Hamburger Helper style dish. Or you can really jazz it up if you have time to run to the store and get extras... or maybe you happen to have a few things on hand that would work well as toppings. Great! Throw in what you have and don't worry about it.
This is one of those really easy back-pocket dinner ideas you can keep in your back pocket. So when you've had a long day and you don't want to stress about dinner. Pull this out of your bag of tricks.
This is a BIG casserole. It will feed about 8 people good-sized portions. So this is a great recipe for feeding a crowd say, if you're hosting a party or a large family dinner.
However if you have an average sized family, then you could split this recipe in half. Or go ahead and make this recipe but divide it into two casserole dishes and freeze one for later.
This can be made using just one pot if you have a dutch oven. Use it to cook the pasta then after you drain the pasta, use it as your casserole dish.
You could also use a large cast iron skillet. It's just a little harder and potentially messier to boil pasta in a cast iron skillet since the sides are low.
Don't want to fire up the oven? No problem. Try making it in a skillet on the stovetop and just stir the cheese in while everything is still hot.
Topping with cheese and popping this casserole into the oven is optional if you want that melted cheesy layer on top.
Leftovers can be store in the fridge, in an airtight container, for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
★ More Beef Dinner Recipes ★
Browse all my easy beef dinner recipes
This taco pasta casserole bake was featured on South Your Mouth!
Taco Pasta Casserole (5 Ingredients)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground beef or use chicken and/or turkey
- 16 oz pasta shells
- 15.5 oz salsa
- ½ cup shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
- 2 (1oz) packets taco seasoning (¼ cup if using bulk taco seasoning)
- 1 ½ cups water
Optional for Creamy Sauce
- ½ cup cream cheese or sour cream
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400˚F.
- Cook pasta. Prepare pasta according to package, drain and set aside.
- Cook meat. Heat a large dutch oven or oven-safe skillet to high and add meat. Stir and cook until browned. When done, drain off excess grease.
- Combine pasta and meat. Add cooked pasta to the meat. If you don't have a dutch oven or cast iron skillet, you can move everything to a casserole dish.
- Add seasoning and salsa. Sprinkle taco seasoning over the meat then pour water over top. Add salsa then stir to combine.
- Add cheese. Top your taco bake with shredded cheese. Fro creamy sauce, stir in sour cream or cream cheese.
- Bake. Add casserole to the preheated oven and bake for 18-22 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly.
- Add optional toppings. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Top with any taco-style toppings you'd like. See above post for ideas!
Sandy B. says
The whole family loved it! There were no leftovers. Will be going into the remake pile for rotation.
Angela G. says
I'm so glad it was a hit for you, Sandy!
Martina Poole says
This is truly a great easy family recipe that can be used during the work and school week. My family loves it.
Angela G. says
So glad you love it, Martina!