No Boil Pasta Bake

Source: http://cookthestory.com/delicious-no-boil-pasta-bake/

Notes: I was amazed that you can do this. It makes it much easier to make pasta-based casseroles. Looking forward to experimenting with other variants. I doubled this recipe so it would use a pound of penne. I also left out the sausage (didn't have) and didn't use the mozzarella (kids don't like).

Serves: Family of 4 eaters with leftovers.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. uncooked dried pasta shells
• 12 oz. (4 links) fully cooked sausages, sliced thinly
• 1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes with the juice
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 2 cups whole milk*
• heavy duty aluminum foil
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Program:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a 2 and 1/2 to 3 quart shallow casserole dish with olive oil.
2. To the casserole dish add the pasta, sausage, diced tomatoes with juice, 1 cup of of the mozzarella cheese, garlic powder, salt and black pepper. Stir. Pour the milk over top and make sure that all of the pasta is submerged.
3. Cover with two layers of aluminum foil and make sure it is very well sealed. Put it in the oven until the pasta is tender, 50-60 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and the Parmesan. Return to oven uncovered just until cheese has melted, 5 minutes.
4. Let the pasta bake rest for 15 minutes uncovered before serving. This is important as the sauce really thickens up in this time.

*When you mix together milk with something acidic like tomatoes and heat it up, sometimes it can curdle. I've found that the higher content of whole milk makes this less likely here. If it does curdle though, don't worry about it. It is still completely safe to eat and is still completely delicious, it just looks like you added some ricotta to the dish before baking it.

Yum!