Cheeseburger Pasta

Years ago, a friend of mine on IRC gave me her cheeseburger pie recipe: a meat pie filled with ground beef, onion, dill pickles, and cheese.

It's delicious (and I've had great results taking it to potlucks), but sometimes I don't feel like making a pie crust. So I decided to try using it as a pasta sauce instead, with a few changes to the proportions. The result was fantastic; symbol and I both loved it. And despite the relatively lengthy ingredient list, it comes together quickly and easily.

As far as the pasta goes, you probably want something small-to-medium sized that interacts well with the chunky sauce (i.e. not noodles); pictured here are smallish rigatoni, but penne rigate, cavatappi, or rotini would probably also work well.

Ingredients
For 1 lb dried, store-bought pasta:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 large onion
• 4 cloves of garlic (or more to taste), minced or crushed (or equivalent in garlic paste)
• 2 tbsp flour
• ⅔ C milk
• ⅓ C dill pickle brine
• 1 C minced dill pickle
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tsp prepared mustard
• ¼ tsp cayenne
• 2 C shredded cheese; a mix of cheddar and parmesan is good, but consider adding mozarella or swiss for additional delicious gooeyness

Procedure

1. Bring the pasta water to a boil. Add salt and pasta as normal.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, brown the beef and onion together over medium high heat.
3. Add the garlic and sautee until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
4. Stir in the flour, then add the milk and pickle brine. Mix well and stir in the salt and pepper, mustard, and cayenne (and/or any other spices you desire).
5.  Reduce heat to medium and cook until noticeably thickened, which should happen extremely fast, perhaps 1 minute.
6. Reduce heat to low. Add the cheese, a fistful at a time, and stir in so that it all melts together into a tasty goo.
7. Once the pasta is ready, drain it and immediately pour the sauce over it and toss well. Nom.

The original recipe notes that "anything that tastes good on a cheeseburger will probably taste good on this"; for the pasta version, I note that mushrooms (especially in combination with swiss in the cheese mix) would probably be a delicious addition.