This Blushing Italian Sausage and Rigatoni Pasta Bake is, if you can believe it, even better tasting than it looks. And I think she’s a pretty good lookin pasta, if I do say so myself. The thing about this pasta bake is that there is a secret ingredient tucked deep inside – in the red sauce – that really just catapults the whole thing into a new stratosphere of flavor. Yes, we’re going to stir some garlic and herb cheese spread into the tomato sauce, thus giving it an almost incredible depth of flavor and a delightful creaminess that might just have you reaching for the garlic and herb cheese spread anytime you whip up a quick tomato sauce.
If you’re interested, here is the baking dish pictured in the photos in this post. I love it and use it all the time for both sweet and savory applications.
Blushing sauces are happy sauces …
The “Blushing” part of this sausage and rigatoni pasta bake is just that – the cheese spread. Similar to the creamy pinkness of say, a vodka sauce, this simple, quick scratch tomato sauce that we’re making today has a luscious creaminess to it that I think it absolutely wonderful – especially this time of year (it’s winter, in my half of the world).
n addition to lending some supreme flavor to the finished dish, the cheese spread also is dairy based, right? Right. So, that basic quality (literally here – I mean actually, scientifically basic) of the cheese spread will counter-balance the acidity of the tomatoes, thereby blending into a remarkably balanced sauce.
Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely adore a basic tomato sauce, be it a pomadoro, sugo, fresh pizza sauce, or my favorite Incredible Slow Cooker Marinara. But the simple yet incredibly influential addition of the creamy cheese does things to the sauce (in no time at all) that really just get me going. It’s exciting. It’s wonderful when you can add one simple, available-everywhere ingredient to a dish and truly transform it into something that feels just a little bit more special – a little bit extra.
How to Make this Pasta Bake
This is really a very straightforward pasta baking affair – nothing unusual going on of which to speak. We’re going to brown some Italian sausage (either hot or sweet) in just a smidge of olive oil until it’s massively crispy and brown. Which leads me to …
KITCHEN LITTLE TIP: Similar to how I cook or brown off ground beef, I like to allow my sausage to cook almost the entire way through on one side in a pre-heated skillet to ensure that it really gets that deep brown crust. That’s important you see, because that crust adds an entirely new layer of flavor to the sausage – it’s almost like you’re adding another ingredient to the thing, but you’re not. You’re just a really smart and talented cook 😉
Transfer the crispy sausage bits to a plate (or whatever) and then cook the onions in a little more oil in the same pan in which you browned your sausage. Add the garlic after the onions are tender (if you add it too soon it will burn) and cook it for about one minute. Add your tomatoes and season with S & P. Then, the cheese! Oh, the cheese. It will blend into the sauce almost immediately – another one of its charms – and voila! You’ve just created an absolutely wonderful scratch tomato sauce with which to enrobe your pasta and sausage.
Pour your beautiful mess into a proper baking dish (a big one), cover the whole lot with shredded mozzarella, and BOOM! Into the oven she goes. A 20-minute wait time is all that now stands between you and one incredible Blushing Italian Sausage & Rigatoni Pasta Bake.
Blushing Italian Sausage & Rigatoni Pasta Bake
Hearty and packed with amazing flavor, this is the ultimate crowd-pleaser. Plus, at only 7 core ingredients, it’s easy and fast to whip up. Nothing not to love about this one. NOTE: if you use a cast iron skillet to prepare this sausage/sauce, you could also bake the finished pasta in that, if you want to eliminate a baking dish. Up to you!
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Ingredients
Olive oil, as needed
1 lb. bulk Italian sausage (sweet or hot)
½ large onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
5.2-ounce package of garlic & herb cheese spread (such as Boursin or Alouette)
10 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese (give or take)
1 lb. rigatoni pasta, cooked according to package directions
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
- Add about 1 TBSP olive oil to a large skillet set over medium heat. Brown the sausage by putting it in the pan and allowing it to cook almost all the way through on one side until very brown and crispy; about 5 minutes or so. Turn and cook through, breaking it up into bits as you go. Transfer to a plate, drain off some of the rendered fat, and place the pan back on the stove.
- Add another 1 or 2 TBSP of olive oil to the pan, followed by the onion. Cook until tender; about 5 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently to prevent burning, for one minute more.Â
- Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper to taste and then add the garlic and herb cheese spread. Stir until the cheese spread has fully been incorporated into the sauce. Taste. How good is that?! Add the sausage and cooked pasta into the sauce. Stir to combine.Â
- Spray a large baking dish with nonstick spray (alternatively, you could bake this in a cast iron skillet). Pile the pasta mixture into your prepared pan and cover with cheese. I like to put half of the pasta in, then top with some cheese, and then do the remaining half and cover with more cheese.Â
- Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. Enjoy!
