Baked Pasta Casserole

One of the best things about serving a casserole is that you can feed a bunch of people all at once.  This Baked Pasta Casserole is perfect for that.  It's meaty, cheesy and delicious.

I had a Christmas dinner with my church sisters and I was asked to bring a dish.  I decided to make this dish because I knew that it would be a hit.   I made it a couple of hours before the dinner and since everything was already cooked, all I had to do was bake it until the mozzarella cheese melted and browned.

I used penne pasta, but you can use zitti, or any other pasta you like.  Once the pasta and the meat was done I mixed the two and then I added the ricotta cheese.  I mixed it in enough so that you can still see it in the pasta here and there. 

I like to make my own pasta sauce, but for this dish I like to use Classico Four Cheese.  It's really good and the combination of the four cheeses in the sauce makes the sauce really tasty.

Make sure to top off the dish with a lot of mozzarella cheese.  You can always mix a couple of different cheeses, however since the pasta already has four different cheeses in it, I decided just to add the mozzarella and ricotta.

  
Bake it in the oven until the cheese is nice and browned.  Let it sit for at least 10 minutes before cutting.  Enjoy with some garlic bread!!

Ingredients

3 pounds ground beef

1 cup water

1 chicken bouillon packet

1 sazon packet

1-8 ounce can tomato sauce

2 jars of pasta sauce-Classico Four Cheese is my favorite

2 tbsp sofrito sauce (onion, pepper, cilantro, culantro, garlic)

salt and pepper to taste

1 small container of Ricotta cheese

1-8 ounce bag of shredded mozzarella cheese

1 box penne rigate-cooked al dente 

Cook the pasta in water with a little salt and oil. In another pot add the ground beef and 1 cup of water.  Cook on medium heat.  Once it boils clean any fat that rises to the top.  Then add the chicken bouillon, sazon, tomato sauce, sofrito, salt and pepper.  Cook the meat for about 15-20 minutes.

Once the meat is cooked, combine with the penne pasta and mix in the pasta sauce.  Pour into a 13x9 baking dish.  Mix in the Ricotta cheese and top with Mozzarella cheese.   Bake in the oven at 350 degrees until mozzarella cheese has melted and browned about 20-25 minutes.

Tip: You can put this all together and keep it in the refrigerator until ready to bake and serve.