Sexy Italian Sausage Rigatoni Pasta Bake

Ingredients 

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 900g Italian large thick pork sausages
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 255g spinach rinsed
• 500g Passata
• 100g Parmigiano Reggiano
• Salt & Pepper
• 2 x 500g Rigatoni
• 4 x 150g Mozzarella
• Basil

Method

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over a medium heat. Take the skin off the sausages, and add to skillet and break up with wooden spoon into thick chunks. Cook for around 8 minutes and then add the onions and cook until translucent around 5 minutes. Add the garlic for another 30 seconds until golden brown.

Add the passata and season with salt and pepper and mix well. Chop the spinach and basil and add to the skillet and mix well. Leave this bubbling and simmering away and then bring a large pot of salted water to the boil over high heat. Add the rigatoni and cook until al dente.

Don’t just look at the timing on the packaging for rigatoni or any pasta, scoop some out while it is cooking and set aside to cool down a bit and taste it yourself, that’s the way to do it and that’s how you know when it’s ready, by taste.

Drain the rigatoni and add to the skillet with the sausages and sauce. Mix well, then slightly oil a 15×10 inch baking dish. Spread the pasta mixture in the baking dish, then break up the mozzarella and spread around the top of the dish, then grate Parmigiano Reggiano to cover. Put in preheated oven at 180 degrees until the sauce is bubbling and its nice and crispy on top and the cheese is melted, around 20/25 minutes.

Here is a picture of the dish just before it enters the oven, grate lots of Parmigiano Reggiano on top, just before it goes in the oven.

Serve hot and enjoy this beautiful dish, one of our families favourites.

Buon Appetito