Baked Italian Pasta
Try our Baked Italian Pasta as a way to up-date your everyday Italian recipes. it's one of our super easy Italian recipes that will quickly become a family favorite!
Cooking Time1 hr 6 min
Ingredients
- 1 pound penne or ziti
- 2 jars (26 ounce) spaghetti sauce or homemade pasta sauce
- 12 to 16 ounces 6 cheese Italian blend or mozzarella, shredded
- parmesan cheese, to taste
- 1 1/4 pound Italian sausage, hot
- 1 to 2 onions
- 1 to 2 green peppers
- 2 medium sized fresh tomatoes (optional)
- crushed red pepper (optional)
- fresh basil (optional)
- other fresh vegetables to add to sauce (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
- Cook the penne for approx. 9-11 minutes in boiling water (almost fully cooked but not quite).
- At the same time cook the Italian sausage until it also almost fully cooked then slice into small circles.
- Chop vegetables to desired size (leave somewhat chunky).
- Drain penne and place a 1 noodle deep layer of penne on the bottom of a large, deep casserole dish.
- Cover with half the sausage, vegetables, cheese, and sauce.
- Evenly layer the rest of the penne on top of the bottom layer.
- Place the rest of the vegetables, sausage, sauce and cheese on top of the second layer of noodles.
- Top with Parmesan cheese and fresh basil if you would like.
- Cover and bake at 350 degree F for 35-55 minutes (depending on how well cooked/soft you like the vegetables).
- Enjoy with a good Chianti or other red wine.