Parmesan Red Sauce Pasta Recipe from Scratch!

Ciao lovelies! Today I want to share a recipe I made recently, Parmesan Red Sauce Pasta! I made this recipe from scratch, meaning not using pre-made sauce. And today You can learn how to make it too! Let's get started!

This recipe requires some important things, so let's go over what you need.

The above graphic is supposed to be a cutting board and knife btw! Do you like it? I've been trying new graphic design stuff recently, and this is one of those.

Okay, back to the recipe! So you need:

-Penne Pasta

-Parmesan Cheese

-1 can of diced tomatoes

-1 can of tomato paste

-Italian seasoning mix (Oregano, Basil, and Garlic Powder)

-Salt and Pepper

-Spray cooking oil

-Ground beef or your preferred meat substitute

Optionally, you can make some garlic bread in the air fryer from leftover hamburger buns! For that, you need:

-2 leftover hamburger buns

-Spreadable margarine or butter

-Garlic and Italian Seasoning

So now that you've got your ingredients, let's start cooking!

Step One: Cook the pasta fully, according to the directions on the box. This varies slightly between brands of pasta, but any brand is fine here. You can even use a different shape than penne if you'd like.

Step Two: Fully cook your ground beef (or meat substitute), seasoning it with the italian seasoning mix and salt and pepper while the meat cooks. You want it to have some darker brown bits mixed in, the meat needs to be cooked all the way through for best use.

Drain the oil from the cooked meat. I usually pour it into a stoneware mug, let it harden, then throw it away with paper towels.

How do you dispose of oil? Please give me some tips for this in an apartment if you have any! I'm always looking to improve my own techniques.

Step Three: Now you need to mix in the diced tomatoes with the meat. Reseason and mix together over medium heat in a saucepan.

Step Four: Continue to stir and combine the meat and tomatoes over medium heat, then stir in the tomato paste and half a cup of the pasta water. The pasta water being added to the sauce helps the sauce cling to the pasta for more even sauce covering.

Step Five: Continue mixing the sauce over medium heat and add parmesan cheese with each stir. Add to taste. It will make the sauce appear lighter and slightly orange.

Step Six: Drain the fully cooked pasta, then stir it into the sauce to fully combine the two. Serve and enjoy-

But wait, there's more!

To make some garlic bread (and use up some leftover buns), spread some butter or margarine on the buns, season them with garlic and italian seasoning. Put in the air fryer at 390 degrees fahrenheit for 5 minutes, cool and serve!