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Individual Freezer Tomato Pesto Beef Pasta

February 11, 2021 by Carmy Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my privacy policy. Affiliate links may give me a commission on the product but it is of no extra cost to you.

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Packed with flavour and made with 8 simple ingredients, you’ll love this Freezer Tomato Pesto Beef Pasta! Each batch makes 6 individual freezer pasta meals!

freezer pasta: tomato beef pesto pasta

Freezer Meals For One

As I mentioned in another post, a friend of H recently got into a minor accident and to make things easier for him, I made a couple of my favourite freezer friendly pastas and sent them his way.

These individual freezer meals are great if you’re meal prepping for yourself, another person, or a family of two. I usually find that I can’t finish a full one by myself so I like to split one with H and reheat a couple of sides and call it a day if I’m too tired to cook.

close up of a pasta dish with a spoon in it

Why You’ll Love this Freezer Pasta

  • It’s easy to make: it really didn’t take me that long to make. It only takes 8 ingredients!
  • They freeze so well: nothing freezes better than pasta! These individual pastas freezes so wonderfully. I usually have them within 4 months of being frozen.
  • They’re simple to reheat: just into the oven they go, straight from frozen! No thawing needed.
  • You can easily scale up: make a larger batch for more individual pastas or get a larger container so you can get 2-4 servings per lasagna.

What You’ll Need For These Freezer Pastas

For the pastas, I froze mine in aluminum pans as to make it easier for him to reheat directly in and not have to wash dishes/return anything to me. The exact measurements of the pans I used are 6.6 inches x 4.6 inches x 1.7 inches. I couldn’t find the exact ones online but here’s the closest one I saw on Amazon.

Freezer containers.
  • beef
  • salt
  • onion
  • garlic
  • pesto
  • crushed tomato
  • pasta – I used rigatoni pasta but you’re welcomed to use whatever you prefer.
  • shredded cheese – I used a mix of mozzarella and cheddar. You can use whatever you prefer.
dried rigatoni pasta

How To Make Freezer Tomato Pesto Beef Pasta

instruction photo set: browning beef, adding sauce, adding pasta, mixing together
  • On medium-high heat, in a non-stick skillet, add in the ground beef.
  • Let the meat brown on one side, before seasoning with salt and breaking up the beef into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon or spatula.
  • Add in the onion and garlic and saute until soften.
  • Add in the pesto and can of crushed tomatoes.
  • Stir to combine and let simmer while you bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
  • Check the pasta box to see how long to cook until al dente and cook for 1 minute less than that.
  • When done, drain the pasta and combine it with the meat sauce.
  • Once combined, portion out the pasta into the individual containers, I layer cheese in the middle and on top.
  • Let cool before covering and storing in the freezer.
  • If eating immediately, bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes.
Individual serving of freezer friendly pasta.
pasta in freezing vessel

How to Cook This Pasta from Frozen

Here’s how to reheat these individual pastas for one from frozen:

  • Heat oven to 350F.
  • Cover the top of the pan with foil to prevent the cheese from burning.
  • Bake for 45 minutes.
  • Remove the tin foil and bake for another 15 minutes or until the middle has heated through.
Individual freezer pasta in a container.

Tips

  • While I didn’t write the date of these freezer meals (as he was only getting 2 batches on the same day), I recommend you write down the dates, especially if you have many freezer meals you want to rotate through.
  • Don’t over fill the pasta containers as it’ll be difficult stacking it in the freezer.

Recipe Variations

  • Swap out the rigatoni pasta for another pasta of your choice.
  • Ground beef can be swapped for ground pork, chicken, turkey, or a meat-less option such as lentils.
  • Add some red chili flakes to add some heat to it.
  • You can use fresh herbs or dried herbs for the meat sauce if you’d like but try to not overpower the pesto flavour.

Freezer Tomato Pesto Beef Pasta

Packed with flavour and made with 8 simple ingredients, you’ll love this Freezer Tomato Pesto Beef Pasta! Each batch makes 6 individual freezer pasta meals!
Print Rate
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 40 mins
Servings: 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 lb beef
  • 1 tsp salt, or more to taste
  • 1 sweet onion, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 cups pesto
  • 28 oz crushed tomato
  • 4 cups rigatoni pasta
  • 2-3 cups shredded cheese, or more

Instructions

  • On medium-high heat, in a non-stick skillet, add in the ground beef.
  • Let the meat brown on one side, before seasoning with salt and breaking up the beef into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon or spatula.
  • Add in the onion and garlic and saute until soften.
  • Add in the pesto and can of crushed tomatoes.
  • Stir to combine and let simmer while you bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
  • Check the pasta box to see how long to cook until al dente and cook for 1 minute less than that.
  • When done, drain the pasta and combine it with the meat sauce.
  • Once combined, portion out the pasta into the individual containers, I layer cheese in the middle and on top.
  • Let cool before covering and storing in the freezer.
  • If eating immediately, bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes.
Tried this recipe?Did you make this recipe? I’m always so happy to hear about it! I’d love to see how it turned out. Tag me at @CarmysHungry on Instagram so I can see it! If you enjoyed the recipe, I’d really appreciate a comment with a 5 star rating! ♥
Authour: Carmy
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American

Other places to connect with me
Instagram: @carmyshungry
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carmyycom
Email: [email protected]
Shop my Amazon faves: https://www.amazon.com/shop/carmyshungry

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Want more information about meal prepping? Confused and curious about how to start meal prepping? Want to have everything you need in one convenient spot? Check out my new e-book - it is everything you need to know to start meal prepping!  ♥

Filed Under: All Recipes, Freezer Friendly, Main Dishes, Meal Prep, Pasta, Recipes Tagged With: beef, pasta

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meet carmy

Carmy is a healthy-ish living blogger based in Toronto. Here you can find healthy-ish meal prep recipes, Instant Pot recipes, and lightened up family favourites! Follow along on as she shares what she learns along the way!

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