This Hamburger Pasta Medley dish is an easy to prepare hamburger and pasta skillet meal. The combination of hamburger and macaroni pasta make it a family favorite.
The main ingredient of this hamburger pasta medley dish is leftover hamburger patties. You can also make this hamburger pasta from scratch with ground beef and onions, similar to ground beef pasta skillet recipes. We love serving this hamburger and pasta medley with Red Leaf Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette for a fresh summer meal. Don’t forget Raspberry Rhubarb Crisp for dessert.
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What Can You Do With Leftover Hamburger Patties?
Got leftover hamburgers? There are many recipes for leftover hamburger patties, including Salisbury steak, meatloaf, ground beef stroganoff, and Patty Melt. This recipe is a change from a more traditional Baked Macaroni and Cheese, a twist on hamburger patties with gravy, is the perfect harmony of pasta, hamburger, and sauce.
Summer is almost here and that means it’s barbecue time! When we cook for a crowd, we make lots of hamburgers and hot dogs on the BBQ and we often have leftover hamburger patties and hot dogs. This hamburger pasta medley is one of our favorite recipes for leftover hamburger patties.
The beauty of using leftover hamburger patties is that they are already flavored with delicious seasonings, and maybe even tasty BBQ sauce. It’s one of my favorite creative meals with frozen hamburger patties too. If starting with frozen hamburger patties, I just fry them up on the stove and continue with the recipe if I can’t grill them.
Fresh ground beef or your favorite hamburger meat works for hamburger pasta recipes too. When making this easy hamburger pasta recipe, I like to use my favorite kitchen gadget, the onion chopper, to dice the onions, and the meat chopper to break up the ground beef as it is cooking, especially if the beef is not quite defrosted. That’s when the meat chopper really shines!
This pasta with hamburger meat medley is a simple hamburger pasta dish that kids love. My 3 year old asks for more every time we make this hamburger meat and pasta meal.
Can You Freeze Cooked Hamburgers and Hot Dogs?
Yes, you can definitely freeze cooked hamburgers and hot dogs. During BBQ season, we have lots of impromptu barbecues, including chicken, burgers and hot dogs on the grill, along with Bow Tie Pesto Pasta Salad, Kale Quinoa Salad, and many sides, so nobody goes home hungry. When we have leftover hamburgers and hot dogs, we freeze them to use in other dishes such as hamburger pasta in a skillet.
My tip on how to freeze hamburger patties, including cooked leftover hamburger patties, is to put wax paper or parchment paper between the patties when freezing them. This way, they can be easily separated when frozen or slightly defrosted. Pop them into a zip top bag or a plastic container and right into the freezer.
Add cooked hot dogs to a zip top bag for easiest freezing. Cooked hot dogs are easy to break apart, and can be used in this recipe in place of the sausages.
If you have defrosted frozen hamburger patties to room temperature or used a microwave to thaw them, you cannot refreeze them. According to the USDA, for proper food safety, you shouldn’t refreeze meat unless you thawed the hamburger patties in the fridge. We do not recommend refreezing defrosted uncooked meat. We always grill the defrosted hamburger patties and make sure they are well seasoned with BBQ sauce and spices before we freeze them. The BBQ adds great flavor to the grilled hamburger patties for this hamburger pasta recipe.
How Long Are Leftover Hamburgers Good For?
In a sealed container in the fridge, leftover burger patties will keep for 3-5 days. Freezing hamburger patties that are leftover is best done within 3 days. Frozen leftover hamburger patties will last for 3 months, possibly more depending on your freezer.
Just like a musical medley, hamburger pasta medley is an ideal combination of foods, composed of other dishes. When your family tries this dish, they will sing for more! (LOL)
Hamburger Pasta Medley
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef or cooked hamburger patties
- 2 sausages cooked, or hot dogs (optional)
- ½ cup onion diced (if using ground beef or unflavored patties)
- 14 ounces gravy 1 can
- 14 ounces diced tomatoes 1 can
- 3 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 pound macaroni pasta cooked al dente
- 2 cups frozen peas
- parmesan cheese or other cheese, optional for garnish
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- If using cooked hamburger patties, cut into long slices and cut in half. Slice sausages if using. Add to a large skillet and fry to brown slightly.
- If using ground beef and onions, add ground beef to the pan and let brown for 3-4 minutes without stirring. Add onions, and cook ground beef, breaking up, until cooked through and onions are softened. (Drain if necessary)
- Add gravy, tomato and tomato paste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer.
- Meanwhile, while ground beef is cooking, boil water for macaroni and cook macaroni noodles to al dente per time on the package.
- When there are 5 minutes left for cooking the macaroni, add the frozen peas along with the pasta.
- Once the macaroni and peas are cooked, drain and add to beef mixture in the skillet. Remove from heat, stir and let sit for 2 minutes.
- Serve and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and pepper to taste.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information does not include optional ingredients or garnish and is an estimate. It may change based on actual ingredients and cooking methods used.
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Good recipe, but 1 lb pasta is way too much.
So glad you love the pasta Connie! We enjoyed it with one pound, but it’s easy to adjust the amount for this recipe.
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