New Recipe: Pasta Bake

1 package of rigatoni, penne rigate, or other smallish noodle
3 cans of crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup of water
1 tablespoon of italian seasoning
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of pepper
1/2 tsp of onion powder
1/2 tsp of garlic powder
1 pound italian sausage, casings removed
1 package of italian & herb Philly cream cheese
2 to 3 cups of mozzerella cheese

Start heavily salted water boiling for noodles.
Meanwhile, pour tomatoes, water and seasonings in a pot with a lid.  Bring to a wild simmer.  Put a lid on the pot and let it go, just stir it occasionally.
Start browning your italian sausage.  (If you had the time, you could actually break it up and put it raw into the sauce and let it all cook together, but I did not have the time or the inclination last night.)
When the water for the pasta is at a full rolling boil, pour in the noodles.  Cook them for as long as the package says to, minus 1 minute.  :-D  Stir the pasta right after you put it in the pot and once or twice during cooking, but do not stir it everytime you look at the spoon or the pasta.  The last thing pasta needs is for you to be whacking at it with a spoon all the time.
Pour the cooked sausage into the sauce and drain the pasta.
Now that everything is cooked, it is time to assemble.
Get a 9x13 inch baking dish.  Put the pasta in the pan.  Spread the cream cheese over the pasta.  Sprinkle a cup or so of cheese over the cream cheese.  Pour the sauce over this.  Sprinkle on the rest of the mozzerella and put it in the oven.  Turn the oven on to 350.  It will cook as the oven heats up.  You are not making a cake so it doesn't matter if the oven is cold when you put it in there.  When the cheese is melted and starting to brown and the center of the dish is hot, it is done.  You could even put it in the microwave if you wanted to and had a big enough microwave. 
My family loved this!

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1 comments:

Christie said...

This sounds so yummy! I wish Ian weren't allergic to half the ingredients :(

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