Tomato, Basil and Cheese Baked Pasta

I knew that I was craving some kind of cheesy baked pasta, but I didn't want to use our normal baked ziti recipe.

Rachel Ray saved the day for us with this recipe, although I changed it up a little.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ziti (instead of shell pasta)
• Italian sausage (we had about 3/4 lb. left, so we just used that)
• 2 TBSP. EVOO
• 3 large cloves garlic (chopped)
  
• 1 small yellow onion (diced) - I bought a new kitchen toy that makes chopping onions a lot more fun. It was so worth it :)
  
• 1 (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes (Lately the cheapest store for canned tomatoes, including diced, crushed, etc. has been Target - if you buy the Market Pantry brand. I think it's around 54 or 56 cents for a can of diced tomatoes. A store brand, same sized can at the other local stores is $1.06. I think the can of crushed tomatoes was about a $1 at Target; cheaper than Cub has been lately.)
  
• 10 to 12 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 7 oz. container of store bought basil pesto sauce (I had every intention to make my own pesto, but my Friday classes sucked the life out of me, so store-bought pesto it was...)
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (we didn't use this kind; we had a bag of half Romano and half Asiago cheese in our freezer, so we used that instead; and it worked out well)
• 1/2 pound of fresh mozzarella, shredded (I cheaped out on this ingredient too; I bought a block of Target brand mozzarella cheese and shredded it. Probably not as good as the fancy mozzarella, but it saved us some $$$)

Directions
1) Brown the Italian sausage, and then set it aside

2) Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt the water. Then cook the pasta according to the directions on the box; cook it until it is al dente. Drain it and set it aside.

3) Preheat a deep, big skillet over medium heat. (We used the 11" chef's skillet from our wedding set)

4) Add the 2 TBSP of EVOO to the skillet; coating the bottom of the pan.

5) Add the garlic; let it cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the chopped onion. Cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes (until the onions look cooked).

6) Add the tomatoes and stir. Let the tomatoes come to a bubble, and then reduce the heat to low.

7) Stir in the basil pieces and wilt them. Season with salt & pepper.

8) Preheat the broiler and place a rack in the center of the oven.

9) Add the pasta shells to a casserole dish. (We used 2 dishes, so we could freeze a batch for another night). Add the Italian sausage, pesto sauce, ricotta cheese and a handful of the romano & asiago cheese. Stir, coating the pasta with the pesto and cheeses.

10) Pour the hot tomato and basil sauce over the pasta.

11) Top with the mozzarella cheese and the remaining romano & asiago cheeses.

12) Place the casserole under the broiler in the middle of the over (about 10 to 12 inches from the heat). Let the cheese melt and bubble on top; 3 to 5 minutes.


Notes: It turned out really yummy. We also had garlic bread. We prepared 2 casserole dishes of this, and we froze one without baking it. My thought is that we might have been better off with setting the oven to 350 degrees and baking it for a longer period of time. The broiler did a good job of melting the cheese, and it tasted really yummy, but I didn't think the dish was hot enough. When we bake our frozen batch, we will probably thaw it out in the fridge, and then bake it at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes (or longer) instead of broiling it. Other than that, it was a great recipe.