Simple Sausage Pasta Bake
A simple pasta bake is a weeknight staple in our house because I can prep it ahead and assemble everything into one oven-proof dish. After the rush from the school gates to home, everything is then ready to go for dinner with minimum hassle. This dish is an absolute favourite with my own children and I would usually serve this with a green vegetable on the side.
In this recipe, you take sausages and turn them into quick meatballs, then layer with cooked pasta in a rich tomato sauce. Then add slices of creamy mozzarella, which will bubble up in the oven and take the bake to the next level. Use any sausages you like to make this, or sausages you may have to use up. Another great tip is the tomato sauce can be quick and chunky, or you can take slightly longer to blend it to smooth, depending on your audience…. But, I prefer it chunky. This is an easy, prep-ahead, family recipe which is easy to adapt and will hopefully fill up hungry tummies after a busy day.
recipe serves x4 people
ingredients ~
x10 Gluten Free Kids Sausages (250g)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 organic onion, peeled and finely diced
1 stick of celery, trimmed and finely diced
1 medium carrot, peeled and finely diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, one finely chopped and one broken into small sprigs
2 tins organic plum tomatoes (400g)
1 teaspoon brown sugar (optional)
250g dried rigatoni pasta
1 ball of mozzarella (125g)
Make the pasta bake ~
Preheat the oven to 180C (fan oven).
To make the homemade tomato sauce ~ take a shallow pan and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the diced onion, celery and carrot. Sauté the vegetables gently over a medium heat for 10 mins, until softened. Next add crushed garlic and chopped rosemary, stir continuously for 1-2 mins. Pour in the plum tomatoes and add ½ can of cold water (200-250ml water). Bring up to a gentle boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, the sauce will cook through and reduce. To finish the sauce, add 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, then season with a pinch of sea salt and a grind of black pepper, to taste. Once cool, you can also blend with a hand blender until smooth and set aside. I skip this step and prefer the sauce to have texture, so this is completely optional.
Cook the pasta ~
Meanwhile bring a large pot of water to the boil and cook the rigatoni, according to the instructions. Undercook the pasta by 2 minutes, so that it is truly al-dente. As the pasta will continue to cook when you bake it in the oven. Once the pasta has reached al-dente, drain and discard the cooking water. Set aside.
Cook the meatballs ~
Whilst the pasta is cooking take a shallow pan and add a little oil. Take each sausage and press the meat out of the skin. Rolling the sausage meat into a mini meat ball. Each Provenance Gluten Free Kids Sausage should give you two mini meatballs. Add them to the pan and brown lightly on each side, in batches (5-8 mins each). Set aside the browned sausage meatballs on a warm plate.
Assemble the pasta bake ~
Take an oven proof dish add a little tomato sauce to the bottom. Next add the al-dente pasta and dot with the browned meat balls. Once all the pasta and meat balls have been added to the dish, in an even layer, pour over the remaining tomato sauce. Finally, add slices of mozzarella to top of the dish and finish with small sprigs of rosemary. If preparing ahead, set-aside the dish to cool now. Cover and refrigerate.
Cook the pasta bake ~
Remove any covering, drizzle the top of the dish with one tablespoon of olive oil. Place the pasta bake in the centre of the oven at 180C (fan oven) for 25 minutes until bubbling and golden. The mini meatballs should be cooked through and the top lightly browned, the mozzarella melted. Cool a little and serve alongside green vegetables.