Italian Sausage Pasta Bake (Pasta al Forno Siciliana)
My Italian sausage pasta bake (pasta al forno Siciliana) combines rigatoni with browned sausage in a simple tomato sauce all topped with gooey smoked mozzarella cheese.
Servings 8
Calories 450kcal
Ingredients
- 16 oz rigatoni pasta, or similar
- 16 oz sweet Italian sausage
- 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cups diced tomatoes
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or more to taste
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
- kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Topping
- 8 oz smoked mozzarella, rind removed, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
- 2-3 tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350F.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta for 3 minutes less than the package directions.
- Scoop out 1 1/2 cups of the water from the pot and drain the pasta.
- While the water is heating, make the sauce.
- Put a large skillet on medium high heat, add the sausage, breaking it up as you add to the skillet. Saute the sausage until cooked through and browned. Transfer the sausage to a bowl.
- Reduce the heat to low. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
- Add the tomatoes and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Take the sauce off the heat. Stir in the heavy cream, parmesan cheese, and basil. Taste the sauce and add salt, pepper, and/or red pepper flakes as needed.
- Now add back in the sausage along with the parboiled pasta and 1 cup of the pasta water. Stir to combine. Add more water if the mix seems dry.
- Transfer the mixture to a casserole dish. (13x9 or similar)
- Cover the dish with foil and bake for 15 minutes.
- Take the casserole out of the oven. Top with the mozzarella cheese. Cover the dish and put it back in the oven for 2 minutes. (Just enough to start softening the cheese.)
- Then take the casserole out and let it sit for 10 minutes covered to fully melt the cheese.
- Uncover, top with more the basil, and serve.
Notes
- Smoked Mozzarella: You want to remove the rind since it doesn't melt the same way as the middle. It's not strictly necessary but you won't have the gooey factor if you don't.
- Melting the Cheese: Fresh mozzarella very fussy about being heated. Too much and you'll get chewy rubber bands. Not fun. In other words, don't be tempted to keep the cheese in the oven for more than the two minutes. That plus the resting time (which is good for the pasta too!) is plenty to melt diced mozzarella.
- Parmesan Cheese: Don't skip this! I did once and wondered why my pasta tasted flat. Also, freshly grated is key. Pregrated often has additives to keep it separate, and even when it doesn't, simply doesn't melt into the sauce like fresh.
- Chopped Tomatoes: I love the boxed chopped tomatoes which are simply tomatoes with no additives or salt and generally use them. (I use Pomi Brand). You will likely need salt in the sauce if you use these and you will find that the sauce is a little smoother since the tomatoes will break down. Canned chopped tomatoes with calcium chloride also work just fine in the recipe, but note that your tomatoes will hold their shape more and you may need very little or no salt.
Nutrition
Calories: 450kcal