Baked Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Cheese

This Cooking Light baked pasta is a great weeknight meal that serves a HUGE crowd on command. It is also a good way to help clean up and clean out your pantry - as you will notice in the photo, there are several different sizes of tube-shaped pasta there. I had three almost-empty boxes of rigatoni, penne, and mezze penne, so I just combined the three to get my required 1 lb. of pasta for the recipe.

BAKED PASTA WITH SAUSAGE, TOMATOES, AND CHEESE

Recipe Notes

I add a step and drain the sausage and onion mixture after it has finished cooking to drain off a little additional fat. I also add a little extra tomato paste for extra flavor.

Nutritional Information (per serving - serves 8)
413 calories - 11.8 g. fat - 24.1 g. protein - 4.5 g. fiber

Ingredients

• 1 lb. package uncooked ziti or other tube-shaped pasta
• 1 lb. hot Italian turkey sausage
• 1 c. chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• Two 14.5-oz. cans petite diced tomatoes in juice, undrained
• 1/4 c. fresh chopped basil
• 1 c. shredded part-skim mozzarella
• 1 c. grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta and set aside.

2. Remove sausage from casings. Cook sausage, onion, and garlic over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble sausage.

3. If desired, drain and return to skillet. Add tomato paste, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer 10 minutes.

4. Combine cooked pasta, sausage and tomato mixture, and basil.

5. Layer half of the pasta mixture into a four-quart glass casserole dish (coated with cooking spray).

6. Sprinkle 1/2 c. mozzarella and 1/2 c. Parmesan over pasta.

7. Layer with remaining pasta mixture and top with remaining cheeses.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes or until bubbly.