If you’re looking for a pasta bake that’s easy to make, then look no further than this sausage pasta bake recipe shared by food-lover Emilie Pullar of The Burnt Butter Table
Pasta bake, a dish beloved by many for its versatility as either lunch or dinner, can sometimes be daunting due to complex or time-consuming recipes.
But food enthusiast Emilie Pullar from The Burnt Butter Table has come to the rescue with her “easy and insanely delicious” sausage pasta bake recipe. Despite taking an hour to prepare, she assures that it “tastes exactly like a lasagne but with much less effort”.
Emilie describes the dish as: “Cooked pasta in a creamy tomato sauce flavoured with sausages and crispy bacon and topped with parmesan and mozzarella cheese.” She adds: “Baked to golden perfection, this dish is truly one the whole family will enjoy. I promise you will love this.”
Ingredients
- 400g pasta of your choice
- One tablespoon butter
- 250g bacon, cut into bite-sized pieces
- One onion, finely chopped
- For garlic clothes, minced
- One and a half teaspoons fennel seeds (optional)
- 500g sausage meat
- 690g passata
- Two-thirds cup single cream
- 100g parmesan, finely grated
- One tablespoon lemon juice, plus zest
- 300g grated mozzarella
- Salt and pepper
Method
To whip up this mouth-watering meal, start by preheating the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Then, in a large skillet or Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium-high heat and cook the bacon until it’s golden, which should take around 10 minutes.
Firstly, remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set it aside, leaving the drippings in the pan, reports the Express. Then, slightly reduce the heat, add the onion and let it cook for about three minutes until it softens.
Next, add the garlic and fennel seeds and let them cook for an additional two minutes before introducing the sausage meat – you might need to increase the heat slightly. The sausage meat should take around five to six minutes to cook. Meanwhile, start cooking the pasta in a large pot of salted water. Then, add the passata and cream to the sausage mixture and bring it to a very gentle simmer.
After that, mix in the parmesan until it melts. Add the bacon back into the pan along with the lemon juice and pepper then taste to see how much salt to add. You want it on the saltier side as the pasta will dilute it. Allow the sauce to gently simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes while the pasta cooks. Alternatively, you could cook the pasta first, drain it and toss it with a teaspoon of butter while you prepare the sauce.
It’s crucial to cook the pasta a minute or two less than what the packet instructs. This is very important as you don’t want it to overcook in the oven. Reserve a cup of the sauce and set it aside then mix the cooked pasta into the rest of it. In a 22cm x 33cm dish, place half of the pasta mixture and top it with an even sprinkling of the lemon zest, 100g of the mozzarella and 30g of the parmesan.
Top with the remaining pasta then evenly spread the extra cup of sauce over the top in dollops. Sprinkle the remaining 200g of mozzarella and the last 30g of parmesan. Pop it in the oven for 20 minutes or until the top is beautifully golden brown. Let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.
