There are partial mash recipes and recipes with steeping grains. With a partial mash you do a small mash to get half your wort, then use extract for the other half. Basically you bring a few gallons of water to 170F, mix in the grain, let it rest for an hour, and strain out the wort. This wort will account for part of your boil, then you make the rest of the wort with the extract. Similar to partial mash is steeping specialty grains. To do this, you take about 8-16 ounces of specialty grains (grains that do not require mashing, like crystal, chocolate, cara-pils) and steep them for a half hour, then add your extract and more water to get your boil volume.
I'd start with steeping specialty grains first, as it is a great way to improve body and flavor of extract beers. Then, to be honest, once you've got the equipment and a few solid brews under your belt I'd go all-grain and skip partial mashing. It's really not as difficult as it sounds. Watch some youtube videos and see how other people do it. I didn't understand what the texts were talking about until I actually saw other people doing it.