Lunch: Baked Pasta

Baked Pasta is one of my favourite party dishes to make. It was one of the dishes I cooked for Noah's recent party too. It's not too difficult, it's flavourful, and the kids love it. (So does my husband actually, but he is resigned to only seeing repeats of the dishes that the kids love!)

The "trick" to this - if you can call it that - is that the meat sauce is made not with minced beef or pork, but with Italian Sausages. I started using sausage meat after following a Jamie Oliver recipe and really loved it. I usually buy the Italian Spicy Sausages from Cold Storage for this, but if I'm serving this to kids, I've found that the Garlic & Herb Sausages are a good substitute.

The sausage meat really makes a difference! I sometimes mix some in with my bolognaise sauce too. Try it if you haven't! You might not go back to plain ol' mince again.

Baked Pasta
(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

400g Penne Pasta (about 3/4 of a packet)
1/2 tablespoon of Olive Oil
3 cloves of Garlic, peeled and sliced thinnly
1 small Onion, chopped
6 regular-sized/18 cocktail-sized Italian Spicy Sausages OR Garlic & Herb Sausages (1 package), meat squeezed out of skins
200g White Mushrooms, sliced
2 x 400g tins of Whole Peeled Roma Tomatoes
A small handful of Basil Leaves, torn
250g Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
150g Parmesan Cheese, grated
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200ºC and put a large pot of salted water to boil.

2. Heat the olive oil in a good-sized pan. Add the onion and garlic and slowly fry on a medium heat until soft.

3. Add sausage meat and break up the meat with the spatula while frying. Fry for a few minutes until the meat starts to colour and the fat start to render, then break it up the meat further so that it resembles coarse mince. Cook till the meat becomes golden brown and slightly caramelised.

4. Add mushrooms and fry for a few minutes till they start to brown.

5. Add the tomatoes from the can, including the liquid. Using the spatula, break up the tomatoes and mix this with the rest of the ingredients that are already in the pan. Cook for about 20mins till the sauce starts to thicken.

6. Add the basil to the sauce and correct the seasoning with salt and pepper.

7. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the packet. Drain and mix in some of the sauce to coat the pasta.

8. Get an appropriately sized baking dish and rub it with a little olive oil. Then layer the ingredients in the dish in the following order: some of the pasta, followed by some meat sauce, followed by some mozzarella and parmesan. Repeat these layers till you've used up all the ingredients. Make sure you have a good layer of cheese on top.

9. Pop the dish into the pre-heated oven and cook for about 15mins or so till the cheese is golden and bubbling.

Cooking Notes:

♥ When I'm out of fresh basil, I've used fresh oregano, or dried versions of either herb with no problem. Just remember that the dried herbs are stronger in flavour so 1/2 a teaspoon or so should be sufficient.

Enjoy!