The Best Pasta You'll Ever Bake

I just want to warn you up front, this recipe will be on REPEAT at your house, so don't hate me that its fatty, delicious, caloric and oh, so satisfying!

Steven was out of a town for a few days for work and I always love to make him something good the first night he gets home. Of course he told me that he wanted chicken and vegetables for dinner, but I nixed that and made this instead!

This dish needs a name so I'm going to call it "Husband Pasta Bake". I wish that I could take credit for coming up with this recipe on my own, but alas, I cannot. While scouring Pinterest yesterday afternoon, I came across THIS RECIPE, and liked it. So I loosely based my recipe, from hers, but it is different and definitely not as healthy!

So what will you need to make all this deliciousness?? The Following Items: 

(1) Box of your favorite pasta (I used 1/2 box of shells and 1/2 box of bowties to use up what was in my pantry...but I will stick with bowties in the future) 

Spicy Hot Sausage (if you can find Italian, great, if not you can season it) 

1.5 C Spaghetti Sauce

.5 C Ricotta Cheese

4 Oz. Cream Cheese 

Mozzarella Cubes/Balls 

Shredded Mozzarella (optional) 

Spinach 

Cherry Tomatoes 

Minced Garlic 

Basil

Parsley

Rosemary 

Salt + Peppa ( Ah Push It!) 

Preheat oven to 375 -- Grease casserole dish -- Roughly chop the sausage, to cook, toss it in the skillet with some minced garlic, basil and parsley -- Cook thoroughly, drain, set aside -- Next, put your pasta on to boil -- While boiling, mix up the spaghetti sauce, ricotta, tomatoes and sausage -- After it is mixed, the add the herbs and salt and pepper, this is to taste, so you can make it as flavorful as you like. Worcestershire sauce could also be throw in to the mix! -- Set sauce aside -- Tear/chop spinach to your liking -- Drain pasta, return to pot and mix pasta, spinach and cream cheese -- Once the cream cheese is melted, add to sauce mixture (you'll need a pretty large bowl) -- Transfer to casserole dish and top with Mozzarella cubes and shredded cheese -- Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes -- Remove foil and bake for another 10 -- Remove from oven and drizzle a little spaghetti sauce over top -- VOILA! 

What I really love about this recipe is that you could make it beforehand, put it in the dish in the fridge, then pop it in the oven when you get home from work or when your guests arrive! The sauce can definitely be made the night before, which would probably be better so that all the flavors and marry together. I hope that you can follow the recipe! I am not one to type out a recipe, nor am I one to follow precise measurements when it comes to cooking, so hopefully yours will turn out just as good as mine! Also, if you love my casserole dish as much as I do, you can find it HERE.

And what's a post without a picture of Cornflake?? Gah, she is such a lush ;)