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I tried Meghan Markle's one-pot pasta. The easy recipe took less than 20 minutes to make.

Erin McDowell
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A one-pot spaghetti recipe featured in a 2025 Netflix series by a high-profile duchess uses spaghetti, Swiss chard, kale, tomatoes, and Parmesan, requiring just one skillet and under 20 minutes to prepare. The dish, tested by a journalist, was praised for its simplicity and minimal cleanup but criticized for lacking depth of flavor, relying on tomatoes, cheese, and red pepper flakes for taste. Ingredients cost $28.10 and include garlic, olive oil, lemon zest, and 3.5 cups of water, with flexible measurements allowing substitutions like heirloom tomatoes. Cooking involves boiling uncooked pasta directly in the skillet with other ingredients, creating a light sauce from starch and cheese without cream. The recipe is marketed as a family-friendly weeknight meal, though reviewers noted it’s more practical for casual dinners than special occasions.
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I tried Meghan Markle's one-pot pasta. The easy recipe took less than 20 minutes to make.

Meghan Markle's one-pot spaghetti was shown during her Netflix series "With Love, Meghan." Chris Jackson/Getty Images; Erin McDowell/Business Insider Updated 2026-03-25T13:23:01.240Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. I made Meghan Markle's one-pot spaghetti from her Netflix series "With Love, Meghan." The pasta dish is made in a skillet using boiled water, tomatoes, and two different types of greens. The final dish lacked rich flavor, but it was tasty and shockingly easy to make. AI-generated summary Summaries are generated by an AI model trained on Business Insider's articles. AI may make mistakes or provide inaccurate/incomplete information. We're unable to load that answer right now. Please try again. What inspired Meghan's spaghetti recipe? What are time-saving cooking tips? What are easy skillet recipes? How does this recipe compare to others? How do you enhance pasta flavors? In the first episode of Meghan's Netflix series "With Love, Meghan," which premiered in 2025, the duchess walked her friend and makeup artist Daniel Martin through one of her go-to dinners: her single-skillet spaghetti.The "family favorite" pasta recipe — yes, even her and Prince Harry's kids love it — uses spaghetti, Swiss chard, kale, baby tomatoes, and grated Parmesan cheese. After some viewers tried the recipe, it received criticism online, with some outlets calling the finished product "bland" and others comparing it to similar recipes already in existence.I decided to make it too, and while the dish is by no means packed with rich, creamy flavor, I did think the tomatoes, cheese, and red pepper flakes did a lot of heavy lifting.The pasta took under 20 minutes to make and used just one pot, which saved me time on cleanup. The recipe seemed ideal for people who want to feed an entire family with little to no time to prepare dinner. Here's how to make Meghan Markle's one-pot pasta. I started by gathering the ingredients for the one-pot pasta. The recipe calls for fresh greens, lemon, and cheese. Erin McDowell/Business Insider For this recipe, you'll need:2 cloves of garlic1 pint plum tomatoes¼ cup olive oilZest of 1 lemonA box of spaghetti3 ½ cups of waterSwiss chardKale¼ cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheeseRed pepper flakesMeghan doesn't list any exact measurements in the scene, other than how much water she uses, so I estimated how much of each ingredient to use.I spent $28.10, excluding tax, on ingredients at my local grocery store in Brooklyn, New York. I chopped the tomatoes in half and added them to my skillet. I chopped my plum tomatoes on a wooden cutting board. Erin McDowell/Business Insider Meghan said this doesn't need to be precise and that you can use whatever tomatoes you have on hand, from a mix of red or yellow plum tomatoes or more exotic varieties like heirlooms. I added the tomatoes to my skillet with chopped garlic and olive oil. I seasoned the garlic and tomatoes with salt. Erin McDowell/Business Insider At this point, you keep the stovetop off — when Meghan is making it, she does these steps while the pan is on the countertop.After adding the olive oil and tomatoes to the pan, I sprinkled the entire skillet with salt. I then added the chopped garlic and mixed it with a wooden spoon. I then added about a box of spaghetti to the pan. I added the spaghetti to the pot and zested a whole lemon over it. Erin McDowell/Business Insider Part of what makes this pasta dish especially easy to make is that you don't need to boil the pasta in a separate pot. Instead, the pasta water comes together with the other ingredients to cook the pasta and make the sauce.I zested a whole lemon over the pasta noodles and then started boiling my water in a tea kettle. It took about 3 cups of water to cover the pasta and tomatoes. Then, I covered the skillet with a lid. I covered the skillet with a lid and let the pasta continue cooking. Erin McDowell/Business Insider In the show, Meghan said to cover the spaghetti with water, which she said takes about 3 ½ cups. However, the amount you use will depend on the size of your skillet.Even though the water was fully boiled when I added it, I noticed that it wasn't hot enough to cook the pasta fully since the entire dish had to be brought to a boil.I turned the heat on my stove to medium-high and let the pasta boil for about five minutes. While the pasta was cooking, I chopped the Swiss chard. I chopped up the Swiss chard, including the stems. Erin McDowell/Business Insider Meghan doesn't say exactly how much she uses, but I ended up using about three stems. She recommends chopping the red part of the stem for added color and flavor, as well as the leaves. When the pasta was fully brought to a boil, I lowered the heat and added the greens. I added the Swiss chard and kale to the pot. Erin McDowell/Business Insider I tried to separate the spaghetti noodles using a wooden spoon but found that they initially stuck together. As the pasta continued cooking, they eventually separated.I also added the chopped Swiss chard and a couple of handfuls of massaged kale, which I tore by hand and added directly to the pot. I mixed the pasta with the greens and let it cook for a few more minutes on low heat. I continued cooking the pasta on low heat for a few minutes. Erin McDowell/Business Insider Meghan said the starch from the pasta would create a "creamy" sauce without the need for cream. Even after letting it cook down for a few minutes, it still looked pretty watery. After I added the grated Parmigiano Reggiano, the sauce started to come together. The pasta came together when I added the grated cheese. Erin McDowell/Business Insider The blistered tomatoes and cheese made the sauce slightly thicker and a light-orange color. The pasta noodles were also perfectly al dente.I topped the dish with a pinch of salt and red pepper flakes, per Meghan's suggestion. I was really impressed by the final result and by how easy it was to make. The finished result was a light and flavorful weeknight meal. Erin McDowell/Business Insider I love having a one-pot recipe on hand, especially during a busy workweek. This pasta dish made for a quick, healthy dinner.The lemon and slightly blistered plum tomatoes added flavor, while the red pepper flakes added a kick — I was surprised Meghan and Harry's kids would be into it. It tasted light and fresh, and I thought the Swiss chard and kale added texture.However, it was far from the most flavorful or decadent pasta dish I've ever had.Still, it was unbelievably quick and easy to make, and even easier to clean up. I could see myself adding this recipe into my weekly rotation for a quick dinner, though I'm not sure I would make it for a dinner party or when I'm really wanting to impress someone with my culinary prowess.

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