Baked Penne Pasta with Meat Sauce

Baked Penne Pasta with Meat Sauce

Well blog flunkies I'm back!  Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but we've been having simple, soft dinners because I had dental work done.  I decided that pasta isn't too hard of a dish to eat with a sore mouth.  Now Shannon loves spaghetti.  If I ask him for dinner suggestions, at least one of them is spaghetti.  Well I get tired of the plain and simple spaghetti that I make, so I decided to try making it a new way last night.  This recipe can be made with ANY sauce, ANY cheese, and ANY pasta that you like.

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground turkey (or beef)
• 1 large jar of pasta sauce
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 2 cups Italian cheeses (divided)
• 1/2 a box of pasta (any kind)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown ground meat and onions in a skillet.  Drain away fat.  At the same time bring 1 qt of slightly salted water to boil in a 2 qt pan.  When boiling, add pasta and boil until al dente, about 8 minutes.  Drain.  Add sauce to meat and simmer on low for about 5 minutes.  Place about half of the noodles in the bottom of a casserole dish and cover with sauce/meat mixture.  Cover with 1 cup of cheese.  Place the remaining noodles, sauce/meat mixture and cheese over this layer.  Cover with foil and bake for about 10-15 minutes until cheese is bubbly.  Enjoy!

Finished product!

Yum!!