Baked Rigatoni with Turkey Sausage!

Get ready for cheesy, pasta, fulfilling goodness. With my own personal creation and all it's glory! :-P
This recipe is pretty much my own creation based off of me reading about 100 recipes that were similar. When I was a kid my mom would make this "goulash" recipe. I put quotes around it because now that I'm older I have found out what goulash is and what we had really wasn't that. But this recipe is pretty similar.

What you will need:
I will say you should need about an hour only becase there is a lot of prep work and I want you to have enough time.

1 1lb box of Rigatoni
1 4cup package of mozzarella shreaded
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 can of olives (I like the medium sized ones) for this you can buy two smaller cans of pre-sliced olives because I go ahead and slice mine right out of the can
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1 19.5 oz package of Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage from Jennie-O
1 small yellow onion (you can use whatever onion you like and whatever size)
4 cloves of garlic
salt

Tools:
13X9 baking dish
1 Large pot
1 medium or large saute pan
a lid for the saute pan
large chef knife
micro planer or fine cheese grater
cutting board
strainer
aluminum foil if you like to line your baking dish

I always stress mise en place. Getting everything ready in advance makes your life so much easier.

Put your pot of water on and flavor with salt.

Place saute pan over medium high heat and let heat up for about a minute then add sausage. Follow the manufacturors instructions on how to cook the sausage through.

Chop onions to quarter inch pieces and dice your garlic. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350.

Add noodles to boiling water. These noodles will cook 8-10 minutes. Mean while keep an eye on your sausage and make sure to turn them so they are lightly brown all over.

Remove sausage from pan and cut into 1/4-1/2 inch pieces.

Wipe the sausage pan clean with paper towels and place back on heat and add olive oil and onions to pan. Cook the onions till slightly translucent and slippery. Add the garlic. Total cook time would be about ten minutes.


All ingredients should be cooked by now. Add the noodles, sausage and sauce to the baking dish. Open olives and strain them. Then add them to the noodle mixture.

Now add about half the mozzarella cheese to the mixture. Blend well. Take the rest of the cheese and the Parmesan and cover the top.

Place mixture uncovered in oven for 30 minutes.

Cheese should be slightly browned and mmmm mmmmm good!

Next time I will make sure to take pictures of the entire process. I forgot to ask my "camera" guy to take photos. Hope you enjoy!