Making Ahead
This recipe can be made 24 hours in advance. Instead of putting it in the oven in step eight, top it with cheese and cover it with aluminum foil. Then place it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Pull it out when you are ready to eat and bake it in an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, uncovered, for 30 minutes. I have to agree with her. This baked rigatoni is made with such simple ingredients and is always a crowd-pleaser. This is the perfect recipe to double and make two pans of. Eat one pan now and freeze the other for later using our instructions below.
Use enough water. A pound of pasta needs a lot of room to cook. Make sure to use between four and six quarts of water so that it can boil and expand without being crowded. Bring the water to a roaring boil before adding the dry pasta. You are looking for huge bubbles, not a small simmer. Salt the water. Italians say that the water should taste like seawater. I like to add a teaspoon of kosher salt to my water before adding the pasta. Cook the rigatoni for two minutes less than indicated on the box. Since we are popping this in the oven, we want to cook it for less time so that the noodles don’t come out soggy in the end.
Additionally, you will notice in the instructions (step seven) that I suggest you add the cheese a cup at a time. The sausage mixture and the pasta will be so hot that they will immediately start to melt the cheese. By adding it in stages, you avoid it forming big clumps.
Add in onions. My husband hates onions, so I leave them out of a lot of dishes, but it would add great flavor here. Add them in step four when you add the mushrooms, but cook a little longer than is indicated. Leave out the mushrooms. We love mushrooms, but if they aren’t your thing, you can leave them out. Add in other vegetables. Red bell peppers and carrots would be great additions to this recipe. They can be added in step four, but will need to be cooked longer than the mushrooms. I would not suggest adding zucchini or yellow squash as it will add quite a bit of liquid to the dish. Swap the spinach for kale (or leave it out). Kale has so many great nutrients and would be a great addition to this recipe. Chop up the kale, remove the thick stems, and add it in the same way that you would add the spinach. Use turkey sausage. This recipe calls for Italian sausage which is typically made from pork. If your family prefers turkey, there are great Italian turkey sausages on the market. You can easily swap that in. You may just need to bump up the olive oil used in step three so that it doesn’t stick. Cut back on the cheese. While we love how cheesy this recipe is, if you are looking to cut back on calories, that is a great place to start. Cut out two cups of cheese, leaving one cup in the casserole and one on top. Use a different pasta. This recipe will work great with penne, ziti, or even fusilli.
Put it in a disposable baking dish. This will allow you to bake the recipe from frozen without worrying about breaking a glass or ceramic baking dish. Leave off the cheese that goes on top. When you get to step eight, leave off the cheese that’s on top. Wrap it up well. After completing step seven, cover the baking dish with foil. Then wrap it up three times in plastic wrap. Freeze the casserole for up to three months. Bake it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit when you are ready to make it. This can go right from the freezer to the oven. Be sure to take off the plastic wrap and leave on the foil. Bake it covered for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the cover and add on the remaining cheese. Then put it back in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
Chopped Salad: My kids love this chopped salad recipe, and it is my biggest parenting win to date. Green Beans Almondine: This delicious recipe comes together on the stovetop and is perfect to make once the casserole goes in the oven. Zucchini Soup: This soup is creamy and delicious, even if you don’t add the cream. It is so good and a great way to sneak in more veggies.
If you make this baked rigatoni with sausage or any of my other recipes, leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
