Sausage & Vegetable Baked Pasta

In the winter, there’s nothing better than a hot meal straight out of the oven. I thought I’d share an easy baked pasta meal that has been a firm favorite for years.

First, you take hot italian sausage out of the casing and tear it apart. Then, brown it in a skillet. During this your pasta should be cooking. Only cook it about halfway through since you will be baking it in the oven and don’t want it to be overcooked.

Next, cut up zucchini and eggplant in cubes and sautee.

When the pasta is (half) cooked, drain the pasta, pour in your marinara sauce (mine is homemade, but you can use whatever your prefer), and toss in the vegetables and mix.

Finally, pour some of the pasta into a baking dish. Put some mozzarella cheese on top, then more pasta, then more cheese. You’re basically layering it like a lasagna.

 

Pop it in the oven at 375 until it gets brown and bubbly, approximately 30 minutes. I don’t cover it because I like for it to be crispy on top.

And that’s it! Pretty easy and you have a delicious, hot meal in the end. You can easily make this vegetarian friendly by leaving out the sausage. It makes for great leftovers too as I’ve brought this plenty of times to work the next day.

Do you have any baked meals that you love for the winter?