Baked Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cheese

I stumbled upon this recipe, perusing my pasta section in my Cookbooks.

The last time I made this, it was 2003.  yikes!  It’s a good one (wish I would go through my cookbooks more often ).  Easy to make, simple ingredients, and great to warm up the next day for lunch.  Serve with a tossed salad and nice crusty bread.

Baked Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cheese (adapted slightly from Cooking Light, November 2003)

8 ounces uncooked ziti or penne or mini penne (what I used)

1 pound of Italian sweet sausage (this is what I used) or hot or sweet turkey Italian Sausage

1 cup diced onion, from 1 large

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2,  14.5 ounce cans of petite diced tomatoes, undrained

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded fresh mozzarella cheese

1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish with canola oil.

Cook pasta in a large pot according to package direction.  Drain pasta and set aside.

Dry out pot and use for cooking the rest of the ingredients.  (I am really into using as few pots as possible!)

Put about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in pot, put on medium heat.

Remove casing from sausage.  Place in pot and break up a bit with 2 forks.  Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring and breaking up sausage more, until  sausage is no longer pink and onions are translucent.

If using the Italian sweet sausage, drain off fat.

Then add the tomato paste, salt, pepper and tomatoes and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and add pasta and basil to sausage mixture.

Place half of the pasta mixture into the baking dish.  Top with half the mozzarella and half of the Parmesan cheese.  Repeat layers.

Bake for 25 minutes until bubbly.

mise en place:

spray 9 x 13 inch baking dish with canola oil:

shredded and grated cheeses:

sausage, onion, garlic:

sausage browned:

add paste, salt, pepper, tomatoes:

after simmering, add pasta and basil:

put half in baking dish and top with half of cheeses:

repeat:

ready for the oven:

we were hungry!