Easy Italian Sausage Pasta Bake
My Easy Italian Sausage Pasta Bake is so comforting and delicious! This easy pasta bake makes enough for a large crowd too and is perfect for leftovers.
Servings: 10 people
Ingredients
- 1 pound penne pasta (see note)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1.5 pounds ground Italian sausage (removed from casings)
- 2 (24 oz) jars your favorite marinara sauce
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, plus more for serving
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a large pot with salted water, cook penne according to instructions, until al dente. Drain and transfer pasta back into the pot.
- On a large deep skillet, add sausage and cook about 5-8 minutes, breaking up the meat into small chunks. Drain any excess fat. Make some room in the skillet, and add some olive oil and the garlic. Sauté a few minutes and mix with the sausage.
- Add marinara sauce, Kosher salt, black pepper, basil, and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. Simmer about 8 minutes, covered.
- Ladle about 3/4 of the sauce onto the pot with pasta. Toss to combine.
- Spread some of the remaining sauce onto a 9x13 baking pan. Transfer the prepared penne with sauce onto the pan.
- Spoon over ricotta on top, roughly smoothing it over, and pushing some of it down. Top with remaining sauce. Then, top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
- Loosely cover pan with foil, making sure that the foil is not directly touching the cheese, if possible.
- Bake about 30 minutes. Then broil 1-3 minutes until golden brown. Watch it closely so it doesn’t burn! Top with more basil and serve.
Notes
- Instead of penne, you can also use rigatoni, ziti, or rotini.