Easy Recipe
This week’s easy recipe Baked Penne Rigate with Meat Sauce and Sausage would make a great, tasty, no fuss, holiday dinner. My teenage son had at least seconds, so ….. the pasta dish must be good.
Serves 6.
Ingredients:
1 lb. penne rigate.
8 oz breakfast sausage links (such as Farmer John).
3/4 lb. ground beef.
28 oz can crushed tomatoes.
1 carrot – finely sliced and then chopped.
1/2 medium yellow onion -finely chopped.
2 cloves garlic – finely chopped.
1 bay leaf.
1/4 cup chopped flat Italian parsley.
1/2 cup red wine.
1/4 tsp. oregano (maybe a dash more)
1/8 tsp. allspice.
salt and pepper to taste.
2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese.
1 Tbsp. butter.
Preparation
Melt butter in fry pan and sauté onion, garlic, carrot ingredients on low heat until soft, and then remove from fry pan.
To large sauce pot add crushed tomatoes, sauté ingredients, allspice, oregano, parsley, and wine, salt and pepper. Stir occasionally as the mixture is brought up to a low boil.
Brown ground beef, making sure to break it up into small pieces. Spoon out grease and discard. Remove ground beef and add to sauce pot. Cook on low boil. As you prepare the pasta the sauce will reduce.
Prepare penne rigate per package instruction (likely getting the water to boil and cooking the penne will allow the sauce to reduce for at least 20 minutes).
Brown the sausage in fry pan. As sausage browns and grease builds up spoon out 1 Tbsp. of grease and add it to sauce. When sausage is browned remove and cut sausages into bite size sections.
Spray a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish with canola oil.
Drain water from pasta.
Drizzle a little meat sauce onto bottom of baking dish, and add a layer of pasta. Add half of the remaining meat sauce, and arrange in equal rows half the sausage. Cover with less than half the cheese. Add layer of pasta, and the remaining meat sauce, sausage and cheese.
To an oven heated to 350 degrees add the pasta dish and bake for 35 to 40 minutes more or less (until top cheese takes on a nice brown color).
When cooked, using hot pan mittens, remove the pasta from oven and let it set up in baking dish for at least 5 minutes.
And there you go, you just made a wonderful festive dinner for family and friends.
Happy Holidays!
Good Eating And Table Talk,
Roger
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes.
