No Boil, One Pan, Pasta Bake
This is a quick and easy, one pan, no boil pasta bake. It goes together faster than the oven can pre-heat. What is meant by “no boil”? There’s no water to boil or cooking of the pasta first. You pop all of the ingredients into the pan and off you go.
I’ve always wanted to do a recipe like this. I can remember being young, maybe a teen, and there was a pasta sauce company that had a simple dish like this. The idea was use a jar of their sauce and a jar of water, mix with the pasta, cover, and bake. It had tiny little meatballs in it. I’m not sure if that company is still in business.
Now that we have a tiny little one on the way we’ve been talking about ways to make it easier those first few weeks. I’ve also wanted to break out the blog into some entrees and not just sweets. A bit of research and we were off. The dish comes together very quick and in the same dish. It’s also endlessly customizable. For those out there that hate dishes you can make it in a single use foil pan and then there are no dishes to do. I mean how much better can it get for those busy, tired, or into something new.
The main focus here is to make sure there’s enough liquid to cook the pasta. The pasta will soak up most of the liquid. You can easily change up what you use to make it “healthier” or have a different flavor. You can also tweak it by changing the type of pasta sauce you use. One of these days I’ll figure it out without a pasta sauce. Pop in pre-cooked sausages, pre-cooked meatballs, cubes of chicken, and you’ll be good to go. The chicken stock and cream will give it rich flavor and texture, while the wine adds some depth and acidity. Make sure you cover the pan in foil for the first bake. This will keep the moisture in the dish. Once the first bake is over you’ll see that the pasta has grown as it’s sucked up some of the moisture. There will be a decent amount of liquid still in the pan. That’s totally normal. Pop on some cheese and return the pasta, uncovered to the oven. This will finish cooking the pasta, but it’ll also bake off some of that additional liquid.
Let your imagination take over and mix it up. I’m sure we’ll be eating this more often once the baby comes. It’s simple, quick, cleans up even more quickly, and tastes fantastic.
Ingredients
1 - 1 lb. box of pasta (rigatoni)
1 - 24 oz. jar of sauce
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup red wine - optional - (If not using add another 1/2 cup chicken stock)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 - pre-cooked Chicken sausages - Italian flavor (or 9 meat balls)
2 cups mozzarella cheese
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees
If using the chicken sausages cut them into 1/4 inch slices
In a 9x13 in baking dish add the uncooked pasta, jar of pasta sauce, heavy cream, wine (optional), and chicken broth - Mix to combine
Add the chicken sausage (or meatballs), salt, pepper, minced garlic, and Italian seasonings and mix again
Make sure most of the pasta is covered by the liquid
Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes
Remove from the oven, stir, and cover in cheese
Return to the oven and bake, uncovered, for an additional 12 minutes (it should thicken during this time as some of the moisture bakes off)
Remove and enjoy
