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.
May I have a reply to my question about where can I buy the 4 cheese sauce since it is not available at William Sonoma?
You can buy 4 cheese pasta sauce by other companies in a regular grocery store. If hers is not available then you can just substrate with another brand. That is what I am doing tonight.
I loved that dish and I want to make it again but the sauce is not available in the William Sonoma close by. They have no idea when they will get it. I went on their website and it says it’s not available. What’s going on? Is it out of production? I don’t understand why you tell us to use a particular product when it is not available. You would think you should have more than 1 company selling your products.