Ingredients
Method
Step 1: Cook the spaghetti
- Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Add the thin spaghetti and cook until al dente according to the package directions.
- Before you drain it, reserve at least 2 cups of that starchy pasta water. Then drain the spaghetti and set it aside. I only used about 1 ½ cups for this recipe but you may want more or less!
- And listen to me on this one—do not steal your pasta water too early! More on that below.
Step 2: Sauté the vegetables
- While the spaghetti cooks, heat 2 tablespoons of cooking olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add the chopped jalapeños, chopped yellow onion, and jarlic. Sprinkle the entire packet of taco seasoning right over the vegetables.
- Sauté everything together until the onion is softened, golden, and translucent.
Step 3: Brown the ground beef
- Push the seasoned vegetables over to one side of the pot and add the ground beef.
- Break the beef apart and let it start browning on its own. Once the meat is partially browned but still has a little pink, begin incorporating it into the vegetables.
- Continue cooking until the beef is completely cooked through.
- Depending on how fatty your ground beef is, you may need to mop up a little excess grease—but don't remove every drop! That fat is FLAVOR.
Step 4: Wake up the beef base and tomato paste
- Push the beef and vegetables over to one side again.
- Add 1 tablespoon Better Than Bouillon Beef Base and 1 tablespoon tomato paste directly into the fat at the bottom of the pot.
- Let them sauté for about a minute, stirring them into the hot fat. This little step wakes everything up and gives the sauce so much more depth.
- Then mix it all into the beef and vegetables.
Step 5: Add the pasta water
- Pour in about 1 cup of your reserved starchy pasta water. (I ended up using another ½ cup later on in the recipe, but start with 1 cup and add a little more later on if needed)
- Stir everything together while scraping all those browned, flavorful bits from the bottom of the pot.
Step 6: Make the sauce
- Add both cans of Hunt’s Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes and stir everything together.
- Bring the mixture up to a boil, then reduce the heat and keep it at a gentle simmer or low boil for about 15–20 minutes.
- This gives the sauce time to thicken up and lets all those taco-y, beefy, tomato-y flavors marry together.
Step 7: Add the spaghetti
- Add your drained thin spaghetti directly into the sauce.
- Toss and toss until every strand of spaghetti is completely coated. If the sauce seems a little thicker than you want, splash in a little more reserved pasta water until it’s perfect.
Step 8: CHEESE
- Sprinkle 1/2 cup freshly shredded Colby cheese and 1/2 cup freshly shredded mozzarella evenly over the top.
- Turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let the residual heat melt that cheese right over the Taco Taco Spaghetti.
- And yes, freshly shredded cheese is the move here. It melts so much better!
Step 9: Serve it up
- Garnish with a little fresh parsley if you want and serve it straight from the pot.
- ORRRR…
- Grab yourself some flat-bottom taco shells, pile up your Talkin Taco Spaghetti right into those babies, and go absolutely feral!!