A delicious homemade version of sausage and pepper penne with lots of meat and veggies in a cheesy sauce
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Cook Time40 minutesmins
Total Time1 hourhr10 minutesmins
Course: Main Course, Pasta
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: baked pasta, baked pasta with sausage, how to make a baked pasta, how to make sausage and pepper pasta, sausage and pepper pasta, sausage and pepper penne
Servings: 4
Ingredients
1Tbspextra virgin olive oil
½medium onion, chopped
2hot or mild Italian sausages
2largegarlic cloves, minced
8mushrooms, sliced or chopped
1cupred, yellow or orange pepperabout 1 regular pepper
1tspdried oregano
1tspdried basil
1handfulfresh basiloptional
1largetomato
2cupspasta saucesomething fairly plain like marinara or sweet basil
2cupsdry small pasta like fusilli or penne
1cupshredded mozzarella cheese
1cupshredded sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste only if necessary
Instructions
Heat olive oil in large wide skillet. Finely chop onion and saute to soften.
Squeeze sausage from casings into pan and cook for about 5 minutes, breaking up lumps into smaller bites.
Finely mince garlic, slice mushrooms and chop pepper. Add to pan and cook for about 5 minutes.
Chop and seed tomato and add to pan. Add basil and oregano. Simmer for about 5 minutes until tomato is softening.
Meanwhile, bring large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta for 1 minute less than directions on package. Drain, reserving some pasta water. Add pasta to pan along with pasta sauce and stir well. Add a few ladles of pasta cooking water to the mixture along with fresh basil if using.
Shred cheeses and add about 1/3 of each cheese to the pasta mixture and combine. Pour into large shallow baking dish. Top with remaining cheeses.
Bake at 350 degrees in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes until the top is browning slightly and bubbling.