Who doesn’t love a great baked pasta?! This dish takes your standard baked pasta to another level with fresh thyme and asiago cheese. After you try this one out, You may never want to make it any other way!
(For 4 – 6 servings)
Prep time: 1 h
Difficulty: easy
Cannot be frozen
Ingredients:
9 fl oz | 1 cup water
4 Italian sausages
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
16 oz | 6 cups penne
1 tbsp butter
2 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
18 fl oz | 2 cups milk
1 tbsp chopped thyme
3 oz | 3/4 cup Asiago, grated and divided
5 oz | 1 cup grape tomatoes
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
Method:
1 In a skillet, bring water to boil and add sausage; cook until water evaporates, about 10 minutes.
2 Reduce heat to low and add 1 tbsp oil, cooking sausages until browned, 5 minutes. Remove from skillet and let cool briefly before roughly chopping.
3 Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large saucepan of salted, boiling water until ‘al dente, ‘ about 8-10 minutes. Drain well. Preheat oven to 350F.
4 Heat butter and oil in a saucepan set over medium heat. Whisk in flour to make a roux, cooking for 2 minutes.
5 Gradually whisk in milk and cook sauce until thickened, about 5 minutes. Fold in half the thyme and cheese. Set off heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
6 In a large oven-proof casserole dish, thoroughly combine pasta with sauce. Arrange sausage and tomatoes on top. Sprinkle remaining cheese and thyme on top.
7 Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden-brown before serving.
Nutritional information:
cal: 717
protein (g): 28.0
carbs (g): 97.8
sugars (g): 9.5
fat (g): 24.9
sat. fat (g): 10.1