Sausage Pasta Bake

4.42 from 82 votes

This sausage pasta bake is a delicious and comforting dish that's easy to adapt. It's a simple weeknight dinner that the whole family will love.

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Total Time35 mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Allergen: Dairy, Gluten, Meat, Sulphites

Servings: people

Calories: 484kcal

Author: Dannii

Add the pasta to a pan of boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes.
200 g rigatoni pasta
Heat the oil in a pan. Squeeze out the sausage meat from the sausage casings and add to the pan. Brown the sausage meat for 5 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the pan and set aside.
1 tablespoon oil, 250 g sausages
Keep the pan on the heat and add the onion and garlic. Gently heat, continuously stirring, for 3 minutes.
1 onion, 2 garlic cloves
Add the courgette, red pepper, mushrooms to the pan and cook for a further 4 minutes.
1 courgette, 1 red bell pepper, 70 g mushrooms
Add the chopped sausages, passata, oregano, thyme, balsamic and salt and pepper and stir.
400 g passata, 1 tablespoon dried oregano, 1 tablespoon dried thyme, 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 pinch sea salt and black pepper
Drain the pasta and reserve 50ml of pasta water. Add the drained pasta and pasta water to the pan and mix well. Add the chopped basil and spinach. Cook until it has wilted.
100 g spinach, 10g g fresh basil
Transfer to a large baking dish and sprinkle over the cheese.
50 g mozzarella
Put in a preheated oven at 180°C/350°f/Gas 4 for 20 minutes, until the cheese has melted.

You can use meat or vegetarian/vegan sausages for this. Try spicy sausages for a bit of a kick of heat.
For some extra freshness, add cherry tomatoes halves on top with the cheese.
This dish is a great opportunity to use leftover cheese or any vegetables you have that need using. So feel free to swap ingredients around.
Leftovers will keep in the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
To make this gluten free, use gluten free pasta and sausages.
If you want the top of this pasta bake to go really crispy, then you can put it under the grill for a couple of minutes.
Reserve a little of the pasta water to add to the sauce to make it nice and silky.
Make sure you don't fully cook the pasta, as it will cook a bit more in the oven and you don't want it going mushy.
We have made our own pasta sauce for this recipe, as we think it is worth the effort. However, you could use your favourite jar of pasta sauce instead, and make this a super easy meal. You might need to adjust the garlic and herbs though, depending on what pasta sauce you are using.
Feel free to use different types of pasta if you already have some in your cupboard.
For a spicier version of this, you can add a pinch of red chilli flakes.