Thursday, October 8, 2009

Baked Penne and Sausage

The other night Matt & I were watching Diners, Drive-ins & Dives about an old-school Italian American restaurant outside of Minneapolis. We both sat there almost salivating over the baked pasta dishes topped with brown bubbling cheese. Well, I knew I had to make a version at home for us that weekend.
Baked Penne
This dish certainly hit the spot & we were happy to use a lot of handmade ingredients in it. The Italian sausage Matt makes himself and both the tomato sauce & tomato paste were canned from tomatoes in our garden this summer. You could certainly leave the sausage out of this dish & make it vegetarian but we really like the flavor it adds.
Baked Penne
This dish is so simple & basic I almost didn't post it here but it was such a tasty, satisfying dish I decided it was worth sharing. It's wonderful reheated the next day for lunch too.

Baked Penne and Sausage

8 oz penne pasta
8 oz bulk Italian sausage
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 c tomato sauce
2 T tomato paste (optional)
1 c grated mozzarella
parmesan or romano

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cook the pasta according to directions. Drain & set aside.

Meanwhile, brown the sausage in a skillet until cooked. Add the onions & garlic & cook until the onions are tender. Stir in the tomato sauce. If your sauce is a little thin add the tomato paste. Stir in the drained pasta.

Grease a 6 x 8 baking dish with olive oil. Pour in half of the pasta mixture. Top with half the mozzarella. Add the remaining pasta mixture. Top with the rest of the mozzarella & some grated parmesan or romano. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until the cheese on top is melted & golden brown. Let sit for a few minutes before serving.

4 servings

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

12 comments:

George Gaston said...

kat... sometimes the simplest of recipes are the tastiest. Can't wait to give this a try! Thanks...

Unplanned Cooking said...

I'll try this dish -- it looks simple to make, plus I think my kids will love it.

Manisha said...

This look so yummy! We might be going to our trailer this weekend and it might be snowing. So this sounds perfect for a meal and with the oven on, it will help to heat us up!

grace said...

impressive penne tower, kat. love the brown cheese. and d3, and SOMETIMES guy fieri. :)

Thistlemoon said...

Love, love , love that second photo! :)

vanillasugarblog said...

love love love that show! I made a macaroni salad from that show (was from a TX episode), but never got around to posting it, but the recipe was KILLER!

Fresh Local and Best said...

That photo of the cut penne is so cool!

Kristin said...

I didn't know my brother made sausage!!!! Awesome!!! I have to agree, sometimes the simplest recipes are the most comforting!!!

jenn said...

I *love* that picture of the stacked penne!!

PG said...

I was waiting to read that you got in your car and went to the restaurant. Making a similar dish is a good solution too. Looks tasty!

Leslie said...

oh wow..this looks like the perfect Italian meal!

Peter M said...

That stack of penne, looking like honeycombs is awesome! I love sausage & penne.

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