This sausage and mushroom pasta bake is cheesy and easy. It’s a nice mid-week meal or buffet dish.

The January deep freeze of upstate New York always gets me to thinking about comfort food, casseroles and running my oven to add more heat to the house!

Cheesy and comforting

It was also time to rotate food in my chest freezer.  I’d bought Italian sausages a couple of months back, and even though they were vacuum sealed in my Foodsaver, I thought it wise to use them–charts tell you that it’s best to use any ground frozen meat in 30 days…this was certainly longer.  However, the sausages were in good shape.

Cheesy Sausage Pasta Bake

And cheese.  I ALWAYS have cheese.  Half of my deli drawer in the fridge is dedicated to the solid bricks and most of the bottom shelf is dedicated to packages of shredded.

Cheese Please

Now, what is better than sausage with gobs of cheese?  Well, not much LOL.  So I just added a half a box of spiral pasta that was laying around and a jar of pasta sauce–with a few nice add-ins–and I called this dinner.  And it was good!

Add salad & garlic bread for a hearty dinner

As to the amount of cheese–that’s not carved in stone so use more or less as you please.  I imagine turkey sausage would work just as well here, so that can be substituted too.

This would also be a good dish for a buffet.  It’s simple, doesn’t break the bank and comforting on a cold night.  Add a salad and some nice crispy garlic bread and you’ve got it made.

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Cheesy Sausage Pasta Bake

This sausage and mushroom pasta bake is cheesy and easy. It’s a nice mid-week meal or buffet dish.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: easy pasta dinner, pasta bake, sausage

Servings: 6

Calories: 479kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb Italian sausage links hot or sweet*
• 4 oz fresh mushrooms sliced in half
• 1/4 cup onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 8 oz dry rotini pasta
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 26 oz spaghetti sauce
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

• Cook spiral pasta as per package directions, but cook only until al dente (pasta will finish cooking in casserole). Drain, rinse and set aside.
• Slice sausage links into 1/2-inch pieces.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a deep 11 x 7-inch baking dish (or a shallow 13 x 9-inch dish)
• Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil. When oil begins to shimmer, add the sausage pieces, onion, mushrooms and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until sausage begins to brown. Remove from heat.
• In a large bowl, combine the pasta, sausage mixture, the cheddar cheese, 1 cup of the mozzarella and the spaghetti sauce. Stir well to combine.
• Turn out into prepared baking dish. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes. Remove foil and top with the remaining mozzarella cheese. Return to oven and bake an additional 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and beginning to bubble.

Notes

*Bulk Italian sausage meat may be substituted

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 479kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 27g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 68mg | Sodium: 1216mg | Potassium: 694mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 879IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 289mg | Iron: 3mg

Up close and personal with cheese

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Dust off your slow cooker, put some Harry Belafonte on the stereo and enjoy a taste of the Caribbean with ths Calypso-inspired pork chop recipe.

I’m determined to use my slow cooker more often!  This was one New Year’s resolution I plan to stick to.  I gave up diets and exercising YEARS ago–this one at least is doable.

Check out that yummy sauce

I buy a lot of pork chops because I like them.  Often there are specials where you can get “assorted” chops–which are the whole loin–for about $1 per pound, so I stock up. Unfortunately, some bags I repack with my Foodsaver get lost in the bottom of the freezer.  And yes, sometimes the vacuum seal pops.  I found a couple of popped seals the other day when I was picking through the freezer.  No, not really freezer burned, but it was going to start.  Who HASN’T this happened to???

Slow Cooker Calypso Pork Chops

So I figured I’d do something with a highly flavored sauce just in case those couple of chops got that funky “freezer-burn taste” and it would be hidden.

Dig In

The result was quite delicious here, and if there was any freezer burn funkiness, I sure didn’t taste it.

I give a range for the red pepper flakes.  The 1/2 tsp will give you a nice zip of heat.  If you’d like it a little milder, then use the 1/4 tsp where you just get a flavor.


Slow Cooker Calypso Pork Chops

• 6 meaty bone-in pork chops
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 can (20 oz) pineapple chunks 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs cider vinegar
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbs cornstarch
• oil for browning
• 2 green onions, sliced

Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat.  Add oil.  Brown pork chops well on all sides.  Remove pork chops from pan. Add the 1/2 cup water and scrape up all the burny bits in the pan (deglaze).  Reserve liquid and drippings.


In a medium bowl, mix entire contents of pineapple can (juice + pineapple chunks), the reserved liquid from the pork chop pan, the brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, curry powder, ground ginger and pepper flakes. Mix well and pour into the crock of a 5-7 quart slow cooker.


Place pork chops on top of sauce.  Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or until pork chops are tender.


Remove pork chops to serving plate and cover with foil to keep warm, preferably in a warm oven.


Mix the cornstarch and 1/2 cup water.  Add to juice in slow cooker, stirring while adding; stir well.  Cover slow cooker and cook sauce for 15 minutes.


Ladle sauce over pork chops.  Top with sliced green onion.


Makes 6 servings.

Slow Cooker Calypso Pork Chops

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