Buckle up guys - there is SO much food coming your way the next month and this Italian Mac and Cheese Bake is perfection!!
Here's the deal - pasta (any short variety will work), my favorite tomato sauce in the world, plenty of onions and garlic to give it a good base and LOTS OF CHEESE. Pretty simple right? It comes together in under 30 minutes and make for an impressive dinner that really was no sweat off your back.
Also... LOOK AT ALL THAT CHEESE! It's enough to make even the most cheese obsessed person (speaking from experience) very very happy!
Also side note: if you want to skip the Italian sausage and make this vegetarian - go for it! And if you want to replace the sausage with either ground chicken, ground turkey or ground beef... all will work spectacularly as well!
Italian Mac and Cheese Bake
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian sausage (hot or sweet), casings removed
- 1 large onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 12 ounces pasta, cooked and drained (I used cavatappi)
- 26 ounces jarred pasta sauce
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- ¼ cup half and half or heavy cream
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
- fresh basil, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° In a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat, cook sausage, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until seared and no longer pink, about 4 minutes. Add onion, and garlic, and cook, stirring, until soft, 5 minutes more.
- Add pasta, tomato sauce and season with salt. Stir in half-and-half and simmer until mostly absorbed, 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and stir in half of mozzarella.
- Transfer mixture to a large baking dish and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. Bake until cheese is bubbly and golden, about 10 minutes.
- Garnish with basil and serve.
This was soo good! Highly recommend and super easy!
This recipe was very tasty! It was my first time using cavatappi pasta, and it's a fun choice and a nice change of pace from the usual elbow macaroni. It also holds extra sauce, which is always good. Very hearty meal for a cold day in Georgia.
This is the perfect weeknight meal. It’s delicious and came together so quickly and easily! Love your Four Cheese Tomato Sauce, Gaby!
In our regular rotation. Easy, delicious, and a hit with the entire family. Yet another Gaby winner.
Perfection! Creamy, cheesy, soooo good!
This is so simple and SO good. I wanted some comfort food for dinner and this absolutely delivered. I used Rao's four cheese tomato sauce (no quick access to Williams Sonoma for Gaby's) and I used mild Italian ground sausage. Think I'll add some chopped asparagus to it for the 10 min oven time next time, because there will absolutely be a next time!
Silly question but do I cook the pasta first or it cooks to aldente in the oven?
cook it first!
Delicious it’s a hit with the whole family!
Can I make this ahead and refrig? Then add cheese topping and bake for din?
you can but it won't be quite so creamy
Yummy!
Made this last night, so easy and delicious!! My kids loved it! Your 4 Cheese Tomato Sauce was so good!! Perfect weeknight meal!
YESSSSSSS!!!!! Perfection!
This is sparking joy for me
Gaby, what if I don’t have your four cheese tomato sauce? What do you suggest as a substitute?
I too would like to know this answer. I went out and looked this afternoon for this sauce to no avail.
you could use a store bought tomato sauce
I know it's not 'premium', but Prego makes a four cheese tomato sauce - part of their Farmers Market line. Worked for me, we enjoyed it!
Omg. Amazing. We had half mild and half hot sausage, bc it's what we had. My husband said "make sure you don't forget to make this .. a lot..." another win from Gaby! Thank you!
The BEST pasta sauce in a jar is Rao's. It reminds me of the simple but delicious marinara sauce you would get in Italy. I highly recommend you try it if you can't find Gaby's.
Sounds amazing. Can’t wait to try it.
This looks amazing! Any suggestions if you don't have half and half or heavy cream?