Pan of hot pasta with meat and tomato sauce with text overlay

Mexitalian Pasta Shells

We came up with a new family favorite pasta. With a mix of Mexican and Italian flavors we love this new recipe. I hope you give it a try.

Zarick has always loved to cook but his method and mine are way different! I’m so glad our children get to learn from both of us.

Inspirational Pasta

I grew up watching my mom pull recipes and make a meal plan. She would scour through her plethora of cookbooks that she had collected over the years. Looking for a variety of recipes to cook over the next couple of weeks. Trying to make sure there was a good mix of different meats and different styles of food options.

She wanted to raise us kids with an appreciation for all food types. Which I am extremely grateful for. I love food and I learned to cook from her by reading and following the recipe.

Ingredients spread on the counter for the pasta dish

Zarick, however, grew up learning from his dad and watching cooking shows. His approach to cooking is seeing something at the store and getting an idea.Then seeing if he can create the flavors he is thinking in his head. Or he’ll just looking in the fridge to see what we have and make something tasty out of what is available.

For example, this past grocery trip, he saw these pasta shells and wanted to make a tangy Italian meat sauce to put on them. He and Zekiel were working together on this dish and Zeke wanted to add some Mexican flavors to the dish. So, they invented this Mexitalian pasta.

Boy in the kitchen peeling garlic

It is so cool to watch what Zarick comes up with in the kitchen all without a single recipe. I would be so lost! I have learned some over the years and every now and then give it a try. But I’m not nearly as good at cooking without a recipe as he is.

On the flip side is, Zarick is not nearly as good at following a recipe. 🙂 Sometimes, when I was pregnant or busy with the kids all day, he would offer to take care of dinner. Some of the time I already had meat out for a specific recipe, and he would try to make it. With some goofs here and there. He often says that following a recipe stresses him out.

Onions frying in a skillet

Teaching our children

Both cooking styles are good skills to have. It’s good to be able to read and follow a recipe. Making sure you are organized and have the right ingredients on hand, so the meal is a success. But knowing how to improvise and make substitutions or being creative with what is already there is such a useful skill too.

It is important to us that we raise our children with skills that they will need to be well rounded, capable adults. This takes many different forms but one aspect of it is teaching them how to make good food.

deer meat browning in a skillet

I am so glad that Zarick and I share an appreciation for food. We both love trying food from all over the world. There so many unique flavors that are special to a certain part of the world.

This is often taken for granted here in the United States. We have such a wide variety of food types so readily available to us. We don’t think about the fact that, not so long ago, people only ate what they could make from what they could find in their local area. It is such a blessing to so easily taste what is common in Mexico, Italy, Thailand, India, Africa, Ireland and so many more.

Spices in a bowl

We hope you take the time to enjoy foods from all over and give this pasta recipe a try!

Yield: 6

Mexitalian Pasta Shells

Pan of hot pasta with meat and tomato sauce with text overlay
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 lb. box pasta shells
  • 2 lb. ground deer
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, pressed and chopped
  • 1 can tomato sauce
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon basil
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seed
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 ancho chilis, blended
  • 1 guajillo chili, blended
  • grated parmesan

Instructions

  1. In a large pot, boil water for pasta. Add enough salt to make it taste like the ocean. When this, boils add the pasta and cook according to the package directions then strain. Reserve 1/4 cup of the starchy pasta water to add to the meat sauce.
  2. Heat a large skillet over Med heat and pour in olive oil. Sauté the diced onion to desired brownness
  3. Add pressed and chopped garlic and cook a min longer.
  4. Then add ground deer to brown.
  5. Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.
  6. Stir altogether on a low heat.
  7. Add all the spices and reserved pasta water. Let simmer to blend the flavors.
  8. Add strained pasta and stir to coat.
  9. Top with grated parm and enjoy!

Notes

If you do not want to eat the ground up chili peppers, they can be left whole and removed before serving.

Ground beef may be substituted for the deer.

© Gretchen

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