Meat Lover’s {Ultimate} Rigatoni Bake
I have been making this pasta bake for YEARS and can’t believe I am just now getting around to posting it! This recipe is so delicious and extremely easy, because it uses jarred pasta sauce! No one would ever believe it came from a jar though because of 1 little secret ingredient>>>>> a splash of red wine! Give this one a try! 🙂 We served this with a salad with Creamy Italian Dressing and Parmesan Ranch Garlic Bread.
Meat Lover’s {Ultimate} Rigatoni Bake
Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb Italian Sausage, casings removed and crumbled
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled
6 oz pepperoni, chopped
48 oz (6 cups) of your favorite pasta sauce
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
12 oz rigatoni noodles, cooked 1 minute less than al dente
16 oz cottage cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese (I really just dump a ton of cheese on top without measuring Ha!)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Directions
Add oil to the pan over medium high heat. Add crumbled Italian sausage and onion and cook until brown. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 more minute, stirring constantly. Add wine, pasta sauce, italian seasoning, salt, pepper, cooked bacon, and pepperoni. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes or until heated through. Remove from heat and stir in cooked noodles. In a 13×9 pan, sprayed with pam, add half of the noodle and meat sauce mixture. Top with cottage cheese then the other half of the pasta mixture. Finally, add the mozzarella cheese then the parmesan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbling.
Edited to add: If you DON’T want to cook with red wine, you CAN sub 1/4 cup beef broth 🙂
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