Cheesy Sausage and Pasta Bake

~Leslie~'s Note:

Creamy, cheesy pasta with Italian Sausage pieces. A family favourite and wonderful comfort food!

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 green onions
• 6 medium sliced mushrooms
• ½ cup choppedred peppers or ½ cup green pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups macaroni or 2 cups shell pasta
• 5 sliced cooked Italian sausages (preferably bar-b-qued or grilled)

Sauce

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup ricotta cheese or 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese
• fresh ground black pepper
• salt , to taste
• ¾ cup breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Cook and slice Italian Sausage, set aside.
2. Lightly sautee green onions, mushrooms and peppers in butter.
3. In the meantime cook pasta in generous amount of salted water, drain.
4. Prepare Sauce:.
5. Melt butter on medium setting in a large pot.
6. Slowly add flour to make a thin paste, stirring constantly.
7. Slowly add milk.
8. Add all cheeses, salt and black pepper.
9. Simmer until partially thickened, adding more milk if neccessary.
10. Transfer pasta, sliced sausages and mushroom/pepper mixture to the pot, mix.
11. Transfer all to casserole dish.
12. Top with bread crumbs.
13. Bake at 350 degrees until heated through.
14. Serve with side salad and garlic bread.

Reviews

[Chef1MOM~Connie]

YUMMY and very different. I made and enjoyed this recipe for Aus/NZ Swap Jan 2010 DH and DS liked it as well. I read through the reviews but did not find the sauce too thick, however I did use 2% milk and the cottage cheese. Maybe the ricotta would make it thicker. This is a lovely dinner but lots of pans to make it. Well worth the effort to put together and I think next time it will go faster for me. I used rotini noodles, cottage cheese, sharp chedder and low fat mozzerella. plus extra parm on top. I did not have bread crumbs, thought I did but couldn't find them. I did leave out the mushrooms (medical) but did add in more peppers. This is going to be a rotating dish for us as it is comforting, smells great, and warms up the tummy on these very cold days. Thank you so much.

[Mustang Sally 54269]

My hubby really liked this recipe and the flavours. From some of the other reviews, for the sauce, I decided to to cut back on the flour and some cheese & substituted yogurt for the cottage cheese. For the vegys, I added minced garlic and some finely chopped jalapeno pepper & increased the mushrooms. Cut back abit on pasta & increased the amount of sausage. It was a perfect consistency for us. It's was also a nice change from a tomato based sausage recipe.

[jhackg0d]

No one in my family was a big fan of this. It was overly hearty, I believe. The sauce turned out a bit thick, even after adding about 1/2 cup more milk than this called for. The flavor just wasn't there. This could be a good recipe if it weren't so thick and had a bit more lively flavor to it. Improve it! And let me know!