Baked Rigatoni
This is one of those “easy to improvise” dishes and since we mostly always have homemade pasta sauce in the freezer we can whip this up and have it on the table in no time at all.
We have made this dish with a boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into cubes and mixed with 1 tbls of olive oil, a clove of garlic, 1/2 teas dried basil and oregano, salt and pepper and a handful of mushrooms. I then pan fried it for a couple of minutes adding to the pasta along with some soaked sun dried tomatoes.
We have also made it with meatballs which are made with 1/2 lb ground meat of your preference. Add to the meat 2 tbls flax meal and 4 oz mushrooms which have been finely diced or processed in the food processor, along with an egg, 2 tbls. milk, salt & pepper and 1/2 teas basil and oregano. Bake them in the oven for 15 min at 350F prior to adding to pasta dish.
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups rigatoni
- 500 ml pasta sauce
- 1/3 cup basil leaves, divided
- 1/4 teas salt & pepper
- 2 spicy sausages or meatballs or chicken
- 2 tbls dry bread crumbs
- 1 cup grated cheese(romano and/or mozzarella)
Directions
- Par-cook rigatoni for 7 minutes. Reserve 1 cup of cooking liquid. Transfer pasta to an oiled 9″ X 11″ baking dish.
- In a bowl combine the pasta sauce (preferably homemade) and the water, half the basil leaves and salt & pepper. Pour over the pasta.
- Squeeze the sausages out of their skins and cook in a small saucepan. Scatter over the pasta and sauce. Alternately, do the same with meatballs or chicken.
- Sprinkle with dry breadcrumbs and cheese.
- Bake 15 min at 425F until bubbling. Sprinkle with remaining basil leaves and serve.
Optional:
I found a delicious pasta at Costco. It is True Roots Rigatoni. It does not have white flour in it.
Homemade pasta sauce is always much better but can be substituted for your favourite jarred pasta sauce.
Bread crumbs should be cubes and not finely ground.
