Spicy Sausage Pasta Bake
A creamy and silky tomato sauce with a kick, delicious Italian sausages bursting with flavour, rigatoni pasta and bubbling melting mozzarella cheese. This spicy sausage pasta bake is comfort food at its best.
A creamy and silky tomato sauce with a kick, delicious Italian sausages bursting with flavour, rigatoni pasta and bubbling melting mozzarella cheese. This spicy sausage pasta bake is comfort food at its best.
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp oregano
- 14.1 oz (400g) rigatoni pasta
- 7 oz (200g) italian sausages
- 2 cloves garlic ( finely chopped)
- 1/2 cup (100g) mascarpone
- 2 1/2 cups (700g) passata/pureed tomatoes
- 1/2 cup (125ml) reserved pasta water
- 8 oz (125g) mozzarella
- 1/2 tsp chili flakes
- 1 small bunch basil for garnish ( (optional))
- Carbohydrate 0.0768179166666667 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.00969666666666667 g
- Fiber 0.0396041660308838 g
- Protein 0.0140754166666667 g
- Saturated Fat 0.00232691666666667 g
- Serving Size 1 1 people (140g)
- Sodium 12.3162204861111 mg
- Sugar 0.0372137506357829 g
- Trans Fat 0.00176270833333333 g
- Calories 0 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350F/gas mark 4.
- Bring a pot of salted water a boil and boil the pasta around 3 minutes less than advised on the packet instructions.
- Reserve 1/2 cup (125ml) of pasta water.
- Squeeze the sausages out of their skins and brown in the pan on a medium heat.
- Add the finely chopped garlic, chili flakes, and oregano.
- Stir into the sausages and fry for 1 minute.
- Add the passata (pureed tomatoes) along with the reserved pasta water and a good pinch of salt and pepper, simmer for around 5 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and add the mascarpone, stir the sauce until the mascarpone is mixed in thoroughly.
- Drain the pasta and add to the sauce, mix until it's completely coated.
- Transfer the pasta to an ovenproof baking dish and top with mozzarella.
- Bake in the oven for around 7-8 minutes or until the mozzarella is melted and bubbling.
- Serve with torn basil (optional).
Read the ingredient list for this dish and you will find no warning about what happens when starch meets trapped oven heat. Too many home cooks throw raw or fully boiled pasta straight into a baking dish, completely ignoring the rigorous moisture transfer that occurs once the passata and melting cheese form an insulated blanket over the noodles. This oversight transforms a structured pasta shape into a regrettable, mushy starch-mop before the mozzarella even finishes browning.
Undercooking the rigatoni by exactly three minutes in heavily salted boiling water creates the necessary internal resistance to survive the subsequent simmer and bake cycle without losing structural integrity. When combining the drained pasta with the passata, mascarpone, and reserved starch water, ensure the heat is completely off so the dairy breaks down into a silky emulsion rather than separating into grainy grease. Incorporating that starchy liquid bridges the gap between sauce and surface, binding the tomato solids to the ridged exterior of the rigatoni while the oven finishes the dish.
Determining doneness requires abandoning internal probes and relying entirely on visual and textural cues rather than arbitrary timers. Watch the mozzarella layer closely until it turns golden-brown in patches and bubbles vigorously at the edges of the baking dish, indicating that the internal temperature has peaked and the cheese proteins have fully relaxed. Should fresh fontina replace the standard mozzarella, expect a slightly longer melting window and a nuttier aroma without altering the primary baking parameters.
