A light blue cast iron Dutch oven is filled with creamy homemade spaghetti. Bits of ground meat are visible mixed in with the tender spaghetti noodles and rich red sauce. A gray and white checkered towel is folded next to the blue Dutch oven with a wooden spoon laying on top. On the other side of the pot a few strands of uncooked spaghetti, a small ramken with cream and a jar of crushed red pepper flakes are placed for serving and for a deocorative effect.

There’s always something so comforting about a big bowl of pasta for dinner, especially hearty, warm, simple, saucy spaghetti. You don’t need fancy kitchen equipment or complicated cooking techniques to cook up a delicious pot of spaghetti, although we make it in many forms here at our house.

I have my favorite recipes to whip up on pasta night, and Evan has a few of his too. Spaghetti for dinner always feels nostalgic and oddly sentimental sometimes, and inevitably one of us will end up revisiting stories of epic spaghetti nights through the years, or telling tall tales about how a college semester was made survivable thanks to a pot of spaghetti that fed a bunch of broke college kids for a week.😉

One of my favorite spaghetti night stories to tell is that I was making spaghetti with homemade meatballs for dinner on a regular old Thursday night when I went into labor with my daughter!! Now, that was an epic, unforgettable pot of spaghetti, y’all (and one I didn’t even get to eat!). 🍝

One of my most-loved recipes for our family pasta nights is for this easy cheesy Favorite Baked Spaghetti; it’s good stuff! However, lately we’ve been completely hooked on this fast, flavorful One-Pot Creamy Spaghetti.

A woven bamboo placemat is set with a white bowl with a brown rim and it in a generous serving of one-pot spaghetti is ready to be enjoyed. A small salad plate with a single piece of pepperoni pizza is also on the placemat next to the bowl of pasta. On the right of the bowl, a brown and white striped cloth napkin is set with a fork and a spoon. on the other side of the bowl, a chilled glass of water and small ramekin with grated parmesan cheese is there ready to serve.

I’ve made this very recipe for dinner twice in the previous two weeks and many more times through the years, and always to rave reviews. We all look forward to a big bowl of creamy spaghetti served with good sprinkles of grated parmesan cheese and spicy crushed red pepper on top. And, of course, we can’t go without garlic bread or breadsticks on the side. Buttery warm bread is a must with this creamy pasta!

In this recipe, the pasta cooks right in the same pot with a flavorful, semi-homemade pasta sauce that’s seasoned up with a few pantry-staple spices, chicken broth and cream, allowing a whole bunch of delicious flavors to come together as it simmers. Cooking the pasta and sauce together also creates a thick, rich sauce that literally coats each strand of pasta, making this quick and easy dish feel a little bit luxurious.

A generous serving easy creamy spaghetti is in a white ceramic bowl with a brown rim. Bits of tender ground meat are visible mixed in the rich sauce cooked pasta. A generous sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese is sprinkled on top of the dish making it look extra flavorful and delicious.

I like to add a pound of meat into this recipe to make it extra hearty (and keep the resident meatatarians happy!), but you could just as easily omit the meat to make this a vegetarian one-pot spaghetti recipe that the whole family will love. The star of the this recipe, in my opinion, is the simple cream sauce made with a jar of marinara!

I most often use crumbled Italian sausage in this one-pot pasta because it always adds so much flavor to the dish, and I prefer to use ground turkey Italian sausage when I can find it. But, of course, traditional pork Italian sausage will work perfectly in this recipe too. At times, I’ve also made this easy pasta dish with lean ground beef or ground turkey as well, if that’s what I’ve got on hand. When I cook with plain ground meat, I like to season it up with good pinches of salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.

A hand holds a fork with a generous twirl of creamy spaghetti on the end, ready to be enjoyed. Bits of grated parm, ground meat and creamy red sauce are all visible in the pasta dish. A novelty ceramic set of salt and pepper shakers shaped like red and brown cowboy boots are slightly blurred in the photo background. They are above the bamboo placemat.

This easy one-pot creamy spaghetti is the sort of budget-friendly recipe that makes its way into your regular dinner recipe rotation; it’s certainly made it into mine. Lately, this delicious 30-minute meal is one of the recipes that always comes to mind on busy nights when I want to get something tasty and fast on the table — without filling up my sink with dishes! A satisfying meal with less washing up is its own kind of comfort food, if you ask me!

Serve this simple and delicious pasta dish with a mixed green salad, or a steamed veggie, and buttery garlic bread for a well-rounded comfort food supper. Sometimes I make this simple spaghetti to be served on the side with pizza on our pizza and pasta nights, and they really do make a perfect pair.

Enjoy, y’all! – M 🍝✨💖

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Creamy One-Pot Spaghetti

Recipe by Marcelle at A Little Fish in the Kitchen

0.0 from 0 votes

This quick and easy Creamy One-Pot Spaghetti is perfect for busy weeknights; it’s ready to serve in about 30 minutes. This is simple but delicious comfort food the whole family will love! Serve this quick one-pot pasta with a green salad, steamed veggies, garlic bread, or on the side with pizza!

Course: Dinner, Lunch, MainCuisine: American, ItalianDifficulty: Easy

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound lean ground beef, lean ground turkey, or crumbled Italian sausage (see notes), or a combination equal to 1 pound of meat
2 cloves garlic, minced (or, to taste)
1/3 cup finely diced onion (optional, somtimes I do, but mostly I don’t because picky daughter!)
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional, to taste)
1 large bay leaf
12 ounces uncooked spaghetti (3/4 of a 16 ounce bag)
cups 32 ounces chicken broth or 4 cups of water with 4 teaspoons chicken-flavored boillon
1 (24 oz) jar marinara sauce – use your favorite brand, I use Ragu Simply lately (yum!)
1/2 cup half and half
grated parmesan or romano cheese, for serving
crushed red pepper, for serving
coarsely chopped Italian parsley, for serving (optional)

Directions

In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat and then begin to brown the meat, stirring often. After about 4 minutes of browning the meat, drain any excessive meat drippings (if there are any) and return the meat to the pot.
Add in the minced garlic and onion, if using, and saute for 2 minutes. Add in the Italian seasoning, onion powder, and red pepper. Crack the uncooked spaghetti noodles in half and place it all in the pot on top of the hot meat mixture.
Turn the burner heat up to medium high. Add in the marinara sauce and broth (or water + bouillon). Toss in bay leaf and cover the pot. Allow mixture to heat up, covered, just until the liquid comes to a boil. Turn the heat back down to medium, stir the ingredients well. Allow pasta to simmer over medium heat, uncovered, until the noodles are cooked al dente (about 15 minutes).
Stir one-pot spaghetti and then remove pot from the heat. Allow the creamy spaghetti to cool for about 10 minutes before serving; pasta sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.
Enjoy!

Notes

I prefer to use turkey Italian sausage with this recipe when I can find it! So good and lean.
Recipe from A Little Fish in the Kitchen blog at www.alittlefishinthekitchen.com. All content is owned by Marcelle G. Bolton. Please contact the author for permission to republish