becoming sandy
Sharing what I am learning, unlearning and relearning as I navigate my way through a midlife unraveling and awakening, becoming the woman I was meant to be all along.
In our family, everyone has their favorite food. Rafa prefers authentic Mexican fare, Gabe and Rachel love steak (Rafa, too), and Sarah and Jake prefer pastas. For the longest time, we only ate pasta with marinara sauce when Rafa was out of town or otherwise busy, because he is not a fan. More recently, the kids discovered the Pasta Marinara from Pizza Hut and started asking for that anytime that we ordered Pizza. One day, I decided to try to replicate the recipe, since it is kind of pricey and appeared simple enough to make. After a couple of attempts, I developed a dish that is very similar. It isn't the exact same, because I use Italian sausage instead of ground beef, but you could definitely try it with ground beef, if you prefer. Everyone in the family likes this recipe, interestingly enough, even Rafa. This dish is especially great when I work late, and want to get a meal on the table relatively quickly with minimal work. Pasta Marinara BakeIngredients:
Sauté the Italian sausage over med high heat until cooked through. Add minced garlic and cook for about 3 minutes. Pour 2 jars of Marinara sauce over the cooked Italian sausage and stir. (We have used a variety of sauces, and they have all been delicious. The Classico brand is good, but does have added sugar. Aldi sells a Marinara sauce that doesn't have added sugar that we like as well.) Fill jars 1/3 of the way with water to get all of the marinara sauce out, and add to the marinara/sausage mixture. Turn heat to low and simmer while you prepare the pasta. Bring water and salt to boiling in large pot. Add rotini pasta to salted boiling water and stir. Cook according to package instructions to desired tenderness. Drain the pasta and add to marinara/sausage mixture, stirring to coat noodles with sauce.
Preheat oven to 400* F. Spray 10 X 15 baking dish with cooking spray (I prefer avocado spray). Pour half of pasta mixture into the baking dish. Sprinkle half of the shredded cheese evenly over the top of the mixture. Pour the rest of the pasta mixture evenly over the top of the cheese. Sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly over the top of the pasta mixture. Bake Pasta Marinara for 20 minutes, then broil on high for 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese on top is lightly toasted. I often serve this with a nice salad and toasted Italian bread. Let me know if you try it! I'd love to hear about your favorite sides as well!
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About the AuthorSandy is a parent educator, enneagram aficionado, conscious parenting advocate, self trained and proclaimed home chef, and mother of 4 amazing kids. Archives
May 2022
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