Baked Penne With Meat Sauce

Submitted by Redsie

"Can you say COMFORT FOOD! :) Adapted from BHG Biggest Book of Italian Recipes"

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 8 ounces dry penne pasta
• 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1⁄3 cup tomato paste
• 1⁄4 cup dry red wine or 1/4 cup tomato juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1⁄2 cup chopped onion
• 1⁄4 cup sliced pitted ripe olives
• 1⁄2 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese

directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain well.
2. Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, combine undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, wine or tomato juice, dried oregano, pepper and crushed red pepper. Cover and blend or process until smooth. Set aside.
3. In a large skillet, cook ground beef and onion until meat is brown. Drain off fat. Stir tomato mixture into meat mixture in skillet. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cooked pasta, and olives.
4. Divide the pasta mixture among six 10 to 12 ounce individual casseroles. Bake, covered, for 15 minutes. (Or spoon all of the pasta mixture into a 2-quart casserole. Bake, covered to 30 minutes). Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake, uncovered, about 5 minutes more or until cheese is melted.

Reviews

[cinnabun_dc]

I made my version of this recipe with tomato juice. I'm not sure how much different it would taste with the red wine but I'll not make it again to find out. It had no flavor

 

[CookingONTheSide]

Excellent baked penne recipe! Loved the sauce; it had a wonderful flavor. I used the tomato juice for mine. This is something I will make again. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Boomette]

I used black olives. And a bit more of mozzarella cheese. This is so good. Thanks Redsie :) Made for Zaar Star Game.

 

[Brydell]

super comfort food!!! I loved this dish I added some marjoram, basil, and a clove of garlic and used fresh parmesan instead of mozzarella. I think this is a great recipe by itself or easily tweaked to ones own taste. thanks

 

[teresas]

We loved this dish! I too made in WW friendly following the helpful tips from toni gifford. I cut it in half (just two of us) it worked great.I skipped the food processer (lazy, I didn't want to get it out or clean it) So I mixed all the tomato mixture together, using red wine and I doubled the red pepper flakes, we like hot and spicy. Turned out great! I will be making this again. Next time I think I will add in some green or red bell peppers. Thanks, Redsie for posting.