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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
This classic pasta bake is perfect for a busy weeknight! Packed with nutrition and easy to customize for your family’s particular tastes, this type of dish is quick to throw together.
Rather than buying spaghetti sauce why not use this Marinara Sauce to make your own? You could also make your own Italian Seasoning to use in your pasta bake. There are endless ways to personalize this pasta bake for your own family. Enjoy!
Reader Review
This is delicious! I have made it twice in the last month. I skip the mushrooms & tried pjack and cheddar the 2nd time… both delicious! Perfect weeknight meal that makes a ton of leftovers. Def a keeper!
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: This is a very easy recipe. If you can boil pasta and cook meat, you’ve got this!
- Total Time: This pasta bake will take you approximately 65-80 minutes, depending how crunchy you like your cheese.
- Variations: This recipe lends itself to endless variations. You can switch up the pasta or meat you use, add more vegetables, or even remove the meat entirely and make this a vegetarian dish! Try a Tomato Cream Sauce or Homemade Meat Sauce instead of marinara.
- Tools Needed: For this simple recipe, you’ll need a large pot, a colander or strainer, and a 9″x13″ casserole dish (glass or ceramic will probably work best).
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Pasta: Penne, rotini, medium shells, cavatappi, elbow macaroni, or whatever other medium-to-large pasta shape you like.
Sauce: From a jar or homemade will work great for this pasta bake. Why not try one of the spicy varieties available? Or try an alfredo or rose sauce?
Meat: Any ground meat you like. Sausage, beef, pork, chicken, etc.
Vegetables: Mushrooms and onions are the basics here, but you could add diced peppers or even some frozen mixed vegetables.
Cheese: Have fun with this! Keep your cheese as basic as gooey mozzarella or add some heat with a spicy Monterey Jack or cheddar.
How To Make This Pasta Bake
This is a quick overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- In a large skillet, cook your meat and onion until the meat is no longer pink. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Drain the grease.
- Add tomatoes, sauce, mushrooms, and seasoning. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- While the sauce is simmering, cook pasta in a large pot and preheat oven to 350°F.
- Drain the pasta and add it to the meat and sauce mixture. Put the pasta and sauce into the 9″x13″ pan. Top with cheese and cover with tin foil.
- Bake for 20 minutes and then uncover to bake for another 10 minutes. Broil for 5 minutes if desired. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Yummy Pasta Bake
Don’t Overcook Your Pasta: If you boil your pasta for too long before mixing it with the other ingredients and baking it, you’ll end up with mush. You want the pasta to still be chewy, even a bit crunchy, so that it can finish cooking with everything else and still hold its shape.
Sides: Serve this pasta bake with some Classic Homemade Garlic Bread, because there’s just something about adding cheesy carbs to more cheesy carbs, right? Or if you’d like to add some more vegetables on the side, try a classic Caesar salad, or even a Kale Caesar Salad.
Make it Your Own: This is one of those recipes that you can really personalize. Pasta, meat, sauce, vegetables and cheese are the basic building blocks of this meal. Feel free to play with what exactly that looks like for your family.
Storage Instructions
Fridge: Let this pasta bake cool fully and then put it in a sealed container in your fridge for 4-5 days.
Freezer: Fully cooled and in an airtight container, this pasta bake should keep in the freezer for several months. Make things easier for yourself by freezing individual portions that you can take out and reheat as needed.
More Delicious Pasta Recipes
Looking for more filling and versatile Pasta recipes?
Try some Cheesy Taco Stuffed Shells or Penne with Vodka Sauce & Italian Sausage.
Craving the ease of a slow cooker meal? Check out this recipe for Healthy Crock Pot Spaghetti & Meatballs.
There you go, folks. A classic pasta bake full of flavour and packed with nutrition! Cheese, vegetables, meat, and sauce. You can’t go wrong here. Try it and let me know how it turns out.
Happy Cooking!
Karlynn
Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound Italian sausage, regular or spicy, (casings removed)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- One 24oz jar spaghetti sauce
- One 14 oz can diced tomatoes, (un drained)
- 1 can sliced mushrooms, (drained)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 3 cups uncooked medium pasta shells
- ¾ cup provolone cheese, (shredded)
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, (shredded)
- ½ cup Parmesan Cheese, (for topping)
Instructions
- Over medium heat In a large skillet, cook the ground beef, ground sausage and onion until it is no longer pink and all large pieces are broken up. Add in the diced garlic and cook about one minute more.
- Drain the meat. Add in the diced tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, canned mushrooms and the Italian seasoning. Bring this to a light simmer uncovered so it thickens up a bit for about 15- 20 minutes.
- While the sauce is simmering preheat your oven to 350°. Cook the pasta according to the package directions to al dente. Drain the pasta.
- Add the pasta to the beef mixture and gently mix.
- Pour the mixture into a 13×9 baking dish and spread out evenly. Sprinkle the mozzarella and provolone cheese on top, then top it off last with the Parmesan cheese.
- Bake for about 20 minutes covered with foil making sure it does not touch the casserole top. Then remove the foil and continue to bake for another 10 minutes until it is bubbling and browned nicely on top. If you want it more browned on top you can broil it on medium for 5 minutes uncovered.
- Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving garnished with a bit of fresh parsley and a slice of garlic bread on the side.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Lisa says
This is delicious! I have made it twice in the last month. I skip the mushrooms & tried pjack and cheddar the 2nd time… both delicious! Perfect weeknight meal that makes a ton of leftovers. Def a keeper!
Mary says
very disappointed to see u are using canned mushrooms, why – when fresh are plentiful?
you can give them a quick saute or they will cook enough in the sauce.
Karlynn Johnston says
Fresh is also about 4 times the price of canned, so you can use either one, there is absolutely nothing wrong with canned if that’s all someone can afford!
There is always the option for fresh, nothing to be disappointed about!