Rigatoni Bake

Two days a week I usually help a Grandma watch her 3 Grandchildren (3 year old twins and a 1 year old).  For the next two weeks, said Grandma is on vacation with her husband, so the 1 year old is coming to my home for 8 hour days.  He's only 10 weeks younger than my son, and they are on completely different schedules, so I definitely have my work cut out for me!  My boyfriend will be in and out during this time, due to interviews and training classes, but will help out when he is here.  Regardless, at the end of the day, we need to eat dinner!  In preparation for our first crazy day I made 2 dinners last night.  One to eat then and one to eat today!  It really is a simple recipe and you can throw in whatever you have around.  The batch I made, made a lot, so today my Mom came by and picked up a small casserole for her house.  Next time, I'll attempt to freeze half of my batch, and let you know how it freezes.  

My son only likes pasta with sauce.  He doesn't like the butter and Parmesan cheese, he needs his marinara!  This has everything I look for in a dinner for him all rolled into one!  I even put the spinach in so he gets that extra serving of vegetables without really realizing it!  He definitely wouldn't eat spinach on it's own!  I used jar tomato sauce (yeah, I know!) in this recipe.  However, we're going to start to grow basil, and my landlords usually give us their home-grown tomatoes, so we'll have plenty of homemade sauce come summer!

Yields 6-8 Servings

Prep Time:  15 Minutes            Cook Time:  20-30 Minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil, just enough to coat frying pan
• non-stick cooking spray
• 1 lb sweet Italian sausage, or Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
• 3 cups jarred, or homemade, marinara sauce
• 10 oz chopped spinach (fresh or frozen, previously cooked; I usually buy my green veggies frozen) you could also use shredded carrot or broccoli rabe
• 1 cup pitted black olives, coarsely chopped
• 1 lb rigatoni
• 15 oz part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup shredded Italian cheese mix, OR grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray a 3 or 4-quart baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Bring large pot of salted water to a boil.  Warm coating of oil in frying pan over medium-high heat.
2. Saute sausage in pan, until browned.  As you cook the sausage, break it up with a fork.  Drain the excess oil and fat from pan.  Add sauce, spinach, olives and combine; set aside.
3. Add rigatoni to boiling water.  Cook to just before al dente, approximately 8 minutes.  Drain.
4. I have a large pan so I added pasta to sauce mixture, if not add sauce mixture to your pasta pot, add ricotta cheese.  Mix until all ingredients are combined.  Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish.  Sprinkle the top with shredded or grated cheese.  
5. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until cheese turns a golden brown.