Pasta bake might seem like a humble choice, but this recipe is pure comfort food! You can scale up or down depending on how many people you are feeding, and easily made veggie with a few tweaks! You never need an excuse to try a new recipe, but with World Pasta Day upon us, this is a great time.
Smokey Sausage And Tomato Pasta Bake (Serves 4)
Image credit: Francesca Crosby
Ingredients:
6 sausages, removed from their casing (or sub meat-free sausages)
300g dried penne pasta
1 large white onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tin chopped tomatoes
100ml chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
6 cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
100g cheddar cheese (coarsely grated)
1 ball mozzarella cheese
Salt, pepper and mixed herbs, to taste
Method:
In an oven and hob-safe pan, heat up a small amount of vegetable oil on the hob over a medium-high heat, add the sausages and saute until golden brown. Then remove form the pan and set aside for later.
Using the same pan add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook until are soft and transparent. Add the garlic and continue to cook for two minutes.
Add the smoked paprika, pepper, herbs, tomato puree, ketchup and cherry tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes begin to swell and soften.
Next, add the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock and stir. At this point add the sausages back to the pan. Meanwhile, boil the pasta for 10 minutes, or until al dente.
Once the tomato and sausage mixture has simmered for ten minutes and thickened slightly, drain the pasta and combine the two in the oven-safe pan. Top with grated cheddar cheese and slices of mozzarella and broil in a preheated oven (200C) for 5 minutes until the cheese has melted and browned.
