Baked Pasta With Sausage, Tomatoes, and Cheese

Submitted by skigb

"A great recipe from the magazine Cooking Light. You can substitute sweet turkey Italian sausage for hot, if desired. Or, for more spice, add 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper. Garnish with fresh basil leaves, and serve with a tossed salad."

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 1 lb uncooked ziti pasta (short tube-shaped pasta)
• 1 lb hot Italian turkey sausage link
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans petite diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1⁄4 cup chopped fresh basil
• cooking spray
• 1 cup shredded fresh mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cook Pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta; set aside.
3. Remove casings from sausage. Cook sausage, onion, and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until sausage is browned, stirring to crumble. Add tomato paste, salt, black pepper, and diced tomatoes to pan; bring to boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Combine cooked pasta, sausage mixture, and basil. Place half of the pasta mixture in a 4-quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Top with half mozzarella and half of Parmesan. Repeat layers. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes or until bubbly.

Reviews

[GibbyLou]

We enjoyed this for our dinner tonight. I made a half recipe and used sweet Italian sausage as that was what I had on had. The basil was omitted since I did not have any. I have made this before but not for a long time. Glad to have rediscovered it. Thanks for posting!

 

[Luvs 2 Cook]

skigb we did enjoy this recipe! I saw this in Cooking Light and planned to put it on Zaar. I was pleased to see it already here;) I added more garlic (bc we love it), turkey pepperoni, chilies and tomato sauce. It was easy to do and the instructions were easy to follow and modify. This will go into our pasta rotation!