When I first got together with the person who is now my Spouse, we made a commitment to eating a home cooked meal together every Sunday night. It was my way of honoring a family tradition, and it was his attempt to mitigate the health effects of living on the road five days a week. We lived up to that commitment for a long time, but we aren’t as strict about it anymore. I do try to make a little bit more of an effort to serve up something “special” on Sundays, and this is a favorite meal around the Speyer household. It looks complicated, but it’s easy as… er, it’s super simple. I give you Baked Penne.
You can make this better (and more complicated) by making your own sauce. I used to turn up my nose at store bought sauce and make my own, every single time. Now, I’m writing full time, I’ve started up a few side hustles, and I just don’t have the time or energy to spend fussing over sauce. (Or cleaning up after making sauce. Let’s face it, that’s the real issue.) I’ve been using a roasted garlic sauce from Wegmans and it works fine. My only recommendation would be to use one that doesn’t list sugar in the first few ingredients. My grandmother, who was the world’s greatest cook and made sauce people would pay hundreds of dollars for, would have pinched me black and blue if I tried to put sugar anywhere near a tomato. She’ll get you too.
So, since we’re using ****-from-a-jar sauce, it turns out to be one of the world’s easiest recipes to make. You can make it vegetarian and use meatless sausage (or omit the meat completely). I used a skinless chicken sausage here. You can add vegetables to this dish if you like, or you can omit them. Dress it up or dress it down. I haven’t tried any cheese alternatives (although I really should) to make it vegan.
Ingredients:
1 box whole wheat penne
2 jars roasted garlic pasta sauce
1 32-oz container part skim ricotta
2 16-oz bags shredded part-skim shredded mozzarella
1 12-oz package chicken sausage, sliced
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Cook your pasta to just about al dente – a little chewy.
- Meanwhile, combine the ricotta, one of the jars of sauce, and one bag of cheese in a very large bowl. Use a spatula to combine well.
- Brown the sausage in a frying pan. Add it to the mixture in the bowl and combine.
- When the pasta is done, drain well and add to your large bowl. (I told you to mix well, and to use a large bowl. Hope you listened!
- Use the spatula to mix the pasta with your cheese mixture. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t coat each piece of pasta evenly, but do your best here.
- Spread a small amount of sauce (from your remaining jar) onto the bottom of a large lasagna pan.
- Spread the contents of your large bowl into the lasagna pan. Try to spread it evenly.
- Top with the sauce and the second bag of cheese. If you have some left over it’s fine, but you really want to get a nice layer of bubbly, browning cheese on top here.
- Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let stand 10 – 15 minutes.
- Devour.
The leftovers make great breakfasts and lunches, even cold, and will keep for up to a week!