Penne Pasta Bake

This recipe is a direct product of the crazy pandemic.

I am a major coupon shopper and do my best to capitalize on sales combined with my coupons.  I can often get things for free or very close to it.  Such is the case with pasta and sauce.  It’s not unusual for me to have three or four jars of sauce or boxes of pasta at any given time.  We don’t eat a ton of pasta because we are trying to watch our carbs but they come in handy for a fast meat at home or in the RV.

In the beginning of the virus frenzy when people were running through the grocery store grabbing everything in sight, we were fine letting them since we were well stocked.  All we went to the store for was milk, fruits and veggies and I was thankful everyday that the hoarders hadn’t figured out a way to keep 100 bananas ripe.  I really didn’t think that it would last this long.  I thought we’d hunker down for maybe a month; oh how little did I know.

One night while grocery shopping out of our freezer, I came across half a package of mozzarella cheese, the nice thick slices that we use when making Caprese sandwiches. I didn’t want to go to the store for just tomatoes and ciabatta bread, if there would even be ciabatta bread.  What to do?  We had penne pasta, sauce, sour cream, cheese and ground beef.  This dish was born.

Since it was just the two of us, I used half of the ground beef then eyeballed the rest.  Most times when we bake a pasta dish it goes for 30 minutes or so in a 350 degree oven so we started there.  As Mark says, “I love it when a plan comes together” it worked!  This is a basic pasta bake so adding items like sautéed mushrooms or sautéed peppers would be awesome.  You can also swap out the beef and red sauce for chicken and Alfredo sauce.

Who’s ready to try a pandemic pasta bake?

Begin by boiling water for your pasta.  You can salt the water if you like and cook it until just al dente.  It’ll finish cooking in the oven.

While that’s boiling, brown your meat.  Drain any grease, add some onion and cook until softened.

Add the pasta sauce and simmer for 10 or so minutes.  My step mom always added sour cream to her lasagna sauce and I had some in the refrigerator so we stirred it in after turning off the heat.  I have to admit, it looked and smelled good.

Now, you can stir this all together in a baking dish and top with cheese and call it good.  But, I had these fancy slices of mozzarella cheese to play with.  So, I poured the pasta back into the pot and added the sauce, giving it all a good stir.

Then, I poured half of the pasta mix into a baking dish and added a layer of those thick mozzarella slices.  Mark walked in at this point and I swear I saw him jump for joy.  I did not tell him there were onions in there though, please keep my secret.

Then I poured the remaining pasta on top of those mozzarella slices.

To make sure we have enough cheesy goodness, I added provolone slices and topped it all off with some Parmesan cheese.  Full disclosure, I wasn’t sure about adding the provolone.  I was concerned it might burn and ruin the whole thing.  To my surprise, it came out just fine!

Mark devoured it.  It made a lot.  We had leftovers for a couple of days then I froze the rest.  I have square containers that were perfect.  As the pandemic dragged on, we re-enjoyed our pasta bake.

This time I’m making it for a dear family as part of a meal train.  A family from church has been dealing with a terrible illness for months and sadly their beloved husband/dad passed away recently.  He was a youth leader and meant so much to our boys.  They have a wonderful circle around them helping his wife and children and I’m honored to help with dinner.  I’ll drop this off on her porch with garlic bread, salad and chocolate chip cookies.  I hope they like eating it as much as I enjoyed making it for them.

Print Recipe

Penne Pasta Bake

• 1/2 package penne pasta (about 8 oz.)
• 1/2 pound ground beef (or turkey)
• 1/2 pound ground sausage
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 jar marinara or spaghetti sauce (mine are 24 oz.)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 6 slices thick mozzarella cheese (or however many fits in your dish)
• 6 slices provolone cheese (or however many fits in your dish)
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Boil water and cook pasta until just al dente.  While that cooks, brown your meat and drain any grease.  Add onion and sauté until soft.

Add sauce and simmer 10 minutes.  Turn off heat and stir in sour cream.

Drain pasta and stir together with the sauce.

Pour half of sauce mixture into a baking dish.  Top with as many mozzarella slices as will fit evenly over the pasta.  Top with remaining pasta.

Add as many provolone slices as will fit evenly over pasta and top with Parmesan cheese.

Bake about 30 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.