If you ask me what my “go-to” dinner recipes are for busy nights, I would either say pancakes or pasta.
I’ve posted a bunch of pasta recipes already — but was surprised I hadn’t posted this recipe for Savory Sausage Pasta Bake. It was one of my all-time favorite recipes growing up — and although I’ve adapted it a bit from my mom’s recipe, it’s still one of our favorite weeknight meals.
If you’re a big pasta lover (and don’t like to spend all day preparing for dinner), you’ll definitely want to save this recipe!
Savory Sausage Pasta Bake
INGREDIENTS:
- one 12 oz. package egg noodles (I use the extra wide)
- 1 lb. ground sausage
- 1 qt. stewed tomatoes (or a 28 oz. can from the store)
- 1 24 oz. jar pasta sauce
- 1 t. garlic powder
- 1 t. oregano
- 1 t. basil
- 1 8 oz. package shredded Italian cheese
NOTE: pretty much any type of pasta, sauce, and cheese will work for this recipe — the main flavor changer is the sausage so feel free to mix and match everything else based on what you have in the house.
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350* F. Spray two 8″ x 8″ pans or one 9″ x 13″ pan with cooking spray; set aside.
In a large pot, boil water for noodles (according to directions on the bag/box of noodles you’re planning to use).
While you wait for the water to boil, crumble and cook sausage in a medium saucepan until no longer pink. Drain any grease and return sausage to pan.
Once the water boils, add noodles and simmer until cooked. Drain (do not rinse)
While the noodles are simmering, add pasta sauce, tomatoes, and seasonings to the sausage. Stir and simmer over medium heat until noodles are finished.
Assemble pasta dish by layering noodles, sauce/meat, cheese — then repeat.
At this point, you can either cover it and put it in the fridge/freezer for later or… bake for 20-30 minutes in the preheated oven.
I did both — one for the freezer, one for the oven!
Done!
Dinner is served… maybe with some cheesy garlic bread on the side 🙂
You’ll have about 15-20 minutes of “hands-on” time involved in this recipe (boiling the noodles, cooking the sausage, and assembling the dish). Then you simply pop it in the oven and wait.
The sausage adds such a fabulous “savory” flavor, and don’t forget the cheese… the Dekkers love cheese!
This is the perfect make-ahead meal, take-it-to-a-potluck meal, or bring-it-to-a-friend meal… and of course, freezer meal.
There is almost no way you can mess this one up. I promise!
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Denise Z says
YAY! Now I have a plan for dinner tomorrow! LOVE your recipes–simple ingredients, easy to make and YUMMY!!! (HOW many times have I told you how much we LOVE your “baked” beans?!?)
shelly says
Made this last night and my family loved it! So easy and plenty of leftovers.
Lynn says
Tried this last night. Very tasty. Used tomato basil sauce, the sage sausage and added mushrooms. My husband liked it so much he didn’t even complain about the mushrooms.
Andrea says
well if it’s good enough to hide mushrooms — that’s really saying something 🙂
Barbara says
My daughter prepared this pasta tonight while I ran a few errands. She said it was easy to prepare. We happily enjoyed it (no cooking for me a PLUS) anaide all agreed we’d make it again BUT with the cheesy garlic bread instead of just plain French bread.
Andrea says
Oh good, glad you like it Barbara — and hope you enjoyed your night off from cooking. I would definitely recommend my cheesy garlic bread — it’s delicious!
Christina says
I can’t wait to try this with my sausage loving husband! Thanks Andrea!
Sarah says
This looks delicious and something new we can make dairy free by just omitting the cheese (food allergies here). Thank you for the new inspiration!
Shawn says
Looks like in the picture you use sage sausage. Can you use any flavor of the sausage?
Kristen says
I think she said it’s pretty hard to mess this recipe up, so I would imagine any flavor of sausage you like would work 🙂 I’m thinking of trying it with ground beef … Hopefully that won’t be too bland! My husband is not a big sausage fan.
Deb says
So, you use breakfast sausage instead of Italian sausage? Interesting…………
Becky B says
Looks great! Can’t wait to try it! How long would you bake the frozen pasta bake? Can you just take it directly from freezer to oven, or would I need to thaw it first?
Andrea says
I’d defrost it in the fridge (take it out the night before) and then bake a little longer. Maybe 30-40 minutes. I’d also put foil on top while baking to make sure the top didn’t get too brown.
Enjoy!
stephanie says
Your recipes haven’t failed me yet. I’ll be making this one!