With just a few pantry items and fresh ingredients, you can make these cheesy taco pasta bake for taco Tuesday or any night of the week!

Simple recipes are what I am turning to over and over these days. This cheesy taco pasta bake is a perfect weeknight meal that includes many ingredients you likely already have or are easy to find. 

One of the great things about this cheesy taco pasta recipe is that it is super versatile. You can easily substitute many of the ingredients for things you have on hand or might be more readily available in your store without a big change in the flavor.

You can leave out ingredients like the corn and black beans or just substitute them. Some easy substitution ideas include:

• Replace the fresh salsa with jarred salsa or even canned crushed tomatoes
• Replace the canned mexicorn with thawed frozen corn/mexicorn
• Replace the black beans with pinto beans

I love shell pasta in this taco bake but you can change it to any short cut pasta you can find such as penne or elbows. Our stores don’t have a huge pasta selection right now so I just use whatever I can find. 

Think of this cheesy taco pasta casserole as an upgraded version of hamburger helper. It is packed full of yummy tex-mex flavors and on your table in 30 minutes or less. 

If you love this recipe for cheesy taco pasta, be sure to try these other easy pasta recipes:

• One Pot Taco Chicken Alfredo Pasta
• Pasta Casserole
• Easy Lemon Garlic Pasta
• Three Cheese Baked Spaghetti Casserole
• Bruschetta Chicken Pasta

If you make these yummy taco pasta casserole or any other recipe from the blog, I would love to hear about your experience. Let me know in the comments or snap a photo and tag it #MySuburbanKitchen on Instagram or Twitter. 

Yield: 8 servings

Cheesy Taco Pasta Bake

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No one at the table will be able to resist this cheesy taco pasta bake; an easy pasta casserole made with a few pantry staple ingredients.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 16 oz shell pasta
• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 Tbsp taco seasoning
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 bell pepper, diced
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can Mexicorn
• 2 Tbsp diced green chiles
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 cup fresh salsa
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cup shredded cheese

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions subtracting 3 minutes from the recommend cooking time. Drain and set aside.
2. While the pasta cooks, brown ground beef over medium heat; stirring to crumble. Drain and return to pan. Mix in bell pepper, taco seasoning, cumin, black beans, Mexicorn, and green chiles. Cook for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together water, salsa, and sour cream. Stir into ground beef. Add pasta and 1 cup of shredded cheese. Stir to combine.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Add pasta mixture to baking dish. Top with remaining 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Notes

1. For a basic recipe, you can leave out black beans, mexicorn, green chiles and the bell pepper.
2. Substitute thawed corn for Mexicorn if desired.
3. Elbows, penne, ziti, or rigatoni can be substituted for the shells.