Easy Baked Penne with Sausage (small batch)

 

This recipe for Easy Baked Penne with Sausage that I am sharing with you today is destined to become a firm favorite in your repertoire of quick and easy recipes that make a great weeknight supper any day of the year!

Not only is it delicious, but it goes together lickety split and uses very few simple basic store-cupboard ingredients.  It is a small batch recipe which serves 2 to 3 people which I adapted from a recipe I found on a blog called Salt & Lavender.

 

I really love the different names that people choose for their pages. I am sure there is a meaningful reason behind every choice.  I, myself, have been food blogging for many, many years now.

I started on the old AOL journals, and then moved to blogger when AOL shut down the journals. I started a page on Blogger called A Year from Oak Cottage because I was living in a cottage called Oak Cottage at the time in a small village in Kent, in the UK.

 

 

It was a daily mix of my thoughts and musings and of course a recipe each day. I got to the point however that I wanted to totally separate my personal thoughts and going's on from my cooking, which is when I started The English Kitchen.

Actually first I called it Marie Cooks Britain, but I didn't really like that name and so I changed it to The English Kitchen.  At first my photography was really appalling, but with time, experience and a better camera, the photography got much better.

It is still not as good as what you will see on many other food blogs, but I like to keep things very real.  I don't edit anything, just point and shoot. The only editing I might do is to crop things sometimes.   

I am photography and technically challenged so you really see things basically as they are.  From the beginning I wanted this page to be only about the food and nothing else.

At one time it focused mainly on British cooking and English recipes, but of course with my return to Canada almost three years ago that changed somewhat.  I still do the occasional British Recipe, but like most North Americans am faced with the challenge of acquiring certain British ingredients to do some recipes.

So I now mingle the past with quite a few modern recipes, and North American recipes as well, and have been cooking a lot more over these past couple of years in small batch recipes. I am now living in a house of one person size and I realized that many of us are in the same boat. They are either an older person living on their own, or a pair of empty nesters, or maybe even a college student starting out in a kitchen for the very first time.

My focus now is on basic, simple, delicious recipes, smaller sized, uncomplicated and easy to cook, with not a lot of waste and as budget minded as possible.  I have a huge archive of British traditional recipes on here that anyone looking for  traditional British recipes can easily access, and from time to time I do cook a new one.

 

Its all delicious and that's the main thing. The new, the old, and everything in between.  Today's recipe really appealed to me on a variety of levels. First I loved the fact that it didn't require a multitude of ingredients.

Secondly I loved the fact that it was very easy and quick to throw together, and finally I loved the face that it was also incredibly delicious!  Quick, easy, delicious?  I am all for that!

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE EASY BAKED PENNE WITH SAUSAGE

This is really a very simple list of ingredients.  Almost everything is something I have in my cupboard, refrigerator or freezer most of the time!

• 1/2 pound (8 ounces/227g) uncooked penne pasta
• 2 thick Italian sausages, skinned and crumbled Italian sausages crumbled
• 1/4 medium onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 1/2 cups (340g) good marinara sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
• 3/4 cups (90g) shredded mozzarella or cheddar (I used a cheddar mozzarella blend)
• 1/2 cup (90g) freshly grated parmesan cheese
• Salt & pepper as needed to taste

 

Now that I live on my own when I buy a package of sausages, I break it down into three packages and freeze them.  I usually buy the PC Free From Sausages.  Mild Italian or Bangers. Today I used Italian because this is a dish with Italian flair.  (They come 5 to a pack. I will freeze two each in two separate packages and one all on its own to enjoy fried.)

They are very quick and easy to thaw out as well. This morning I simply took the bag with two sausages in it and put it into a pan of cold water.  They were thawed out within the hour. Easy peasy.

I have also been buying smaller jars of pasta sauces as well. I find that there is less waste that way.  They are the perfect size for a recipe such as this one.

 

HOW TO MAKE EASY BAKED PENNE WITH SAUSAGE

I was very impressed with how quick and easy this was to make. I think you will be also!

Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Cook the pasta according to the package directions just to al dente. (Knock 2 minutes off the cook time.) Drain and rinse.

Crumble the sausage into a skillet and add the onions. Scramble fry until the sausage is cooked through and the onions are softened. If the sausage is very lean you can add a bit of oil.

Add the garlic and cook further for one minute. Pour in the sauce and heat through for about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, adding the pepper flaks if using.

Stir in the cooked pasta, combining everything well together.

 

Butter an 8 inch square baking dish. Spread the pasta into the dish, leveling it out. Sprinkle both cheeses over top.

Bake in the preheated oven, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Heat the broiler/grill and cook for a further 5 minutes or so until the cheese is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and serve. A salad and some garlic bread goes very well with this.

 

This went down a real treat with some homemade garlic toast and a salad on the side. To make my garlic toast I took a couple slices of my cheese bread and cut the crusts off. (I had made a loaf for my son and his family on Friday.)  I buttered it lightly, sprinkled it with some garlic powder, Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese and popped it into the oven on a baking tray along side of the pasta while it was baking.

The salad was simply some chopped Romaine lettuce, mixed with some sliced cucumber and halved cherry tomatoes.  A simple vinaigrette dressing went well, but so would any bottled dressing.

This was a really delicious meal that I really enjoyed. I sent the rest of it home with my sister who had stopped by after work. She feeds my father his supper every day and I knew that he would enjoy it! I also thought it would ease her burden a tiny bit on a day when she was working.

One of the best things about living by myself now is that I can eat pasta 'til the cows come home!  I adore pasta and now I have nobody to please but myself!  If you love pasta also, you might also enjoy the following recipes:

MUSHROOM BROCCOLI PASTA - Rich and tasty this is a vegetarian style pasta with plenty of fresh mushrooms and crispy tender broccoli.  It has a rich and creamy cheesy sauce that goes very well with both the mushrooms and the broccoli. All in all it is a very tasty combination!

TIK TOK BAKED FETA PASTA FOR TWO -  I took on the tik tok challenge and was pleasantly surprised with this recipe which I had downsized just for two people.  You pop cherry tomatoes and feta cheese into a casserole and bake it, ready to be mashed together into a lush pasta sauce. Toss it with some cooked pasta and fresh basil, and you are done!

Yield: 3

Author: Marie Rayner

Easy Baked Penne with Sausage

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 35 MinTotal time: 45 Min

A rich and meaty sauce, this is a very simple bake and sized perfectly for either 3 regular eaters or 2 hearty eaters. Its delicious!

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound (8 ounces/227g) uncooked penne pasta
• 2 thick Italian sausages, skinned and crumbled Italian sausages crumbled
• 1/4 medium onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 1/2 cups (340g) good marinara sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
• 3/4 cups (90g) shredded mozzarella or cheddar (I used a cheddar mozzarella blend)
• 1/2 cup (90g) freshly grated parmesan cheese
• Salt & pepper as needed to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil.
2. Cook the pasta according to the package directions just to al dente. (Knock 2 minutes off the cook time.) Drain and rinse.
3. Crumble the sausage into a skillet and add the onions. Scramble fry until the sausage is cooked through and the onions are softened. If the sausage is very lean you can add a bit of oil.
4. Add the garlic and cook further for one minute. Pour in the sauce and heat through for about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, adding the pepper flaks if using.
5. Stir in the cooked pasta, combining everything well together.
6. Butter an 8 inch square baking dish. Spread the pasta into the dish, leveling it out. Sprinkle both cheeses over top.
7. Bake in the preheated oven, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Heat the broiler/grill and cook for a further 5 minutes or so until the cheese is golden brown.
8. Remove from the oven and serve. A salad and some garlic bread goes very well with this.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @marierayner5530 on instagram and hashtag it #marierayner5530

This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com. 

 Thank you so much for visiting! Do come again! 

 Follow my blog with Bloglovin