This is a sponsored post. My opinions are my own.
I have a confession – while I love cooking – I absolutely detest the cleanup.
While some people find zen while doing dishes, I don’t. And, when I know a dish is going to be beyond especially messy and will require a bit of soaking and scrubbing, well, there’s a strong likelihood I might not make it or try to find another way to prepare it where it doesn’t get so *ahem* messy (hello ham in the slow cooker!). I also am one of those that tends to use a few extra dishes than what might be normally necessary which means more dishes and more mess. Clearly, I need to streamline.
One of my absolute favorite comfort go-to recipes is baked pasta. When I started on my culinary journey years ago, I can recall quite a few dish fails but baked pasta was one of those that I knew I could prep for a small group or a crowd and everyone would love. Granted, the way I started making it was essentially dumping pasta, sauce with a bit of ground hamburger and a couple spices, cover it with cheese and bake in a disposable tin (see – I hate the cleanup!) like one of my friends taught me to do. As I would make it often, eventually I graduated to using my Le Creuset enamel baking dishes and, while they were okay with the cleanup, I still had to soak those baking dishes for a spell.
I eventually learned that a spritz of PAM on my baking dishes would mean that the sticky gooey crispy mess that you might find baked on the pans would rinse off with barely a scrub of the dish brush. Also – if you spritz a bit of PAM on the foil if you lightly tent and cover it (as I do sometimes depending on the preparation), the cheese wouldn’t stick – definitely making baked pasta a dish that would be in the regular rotation.
Now when I make this baked pasta, I tend to make a quick and easy homemade sauce to coat my favorite pasta – cavatappi – and, instead of the ground hamburger, I love adding a few links of fresh Italian sausage and ground turkey for the meat sauce. Also – I love the Italian blend cheeses that have not only mozzarella but also some other faves like fonatina, asiago and romano to give the cheesy crust a bit of a bite. Serve with a light salad and a bit of crusty bread and you have a comfort dinner that will be a family favorite – and won’t have you cursing the dishwasher for making you run the pan through the wash cycle more than once.
On to the recipe:
Gather your ingredients
My secret weapon for easy cleanup – PAM – and yes, that’s one of my first baking dishes I bought eons ago – still looks fantastic!
Fresh Italian sausage – nothing like it
A few spices to add some zest to the sauce
Let’s assemble
Look at that lovely – hot, bubbly and covered with melted cheese
[mpprecipe-recipe:229]
Leaving up to 99% less residue, PAM is your ally in the kitchen and allows you to save time during prep and clean up!
Disclosure: Compensation was provided by ConAgra via Mode Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of ConAgra.
