Rigatoni Bake

I made a dish for dinner tonight using the leftover Homemade Spaghetti Sauce that I made the other day. It was so good that everyone ate it up and didn’t save any for my husband to take to work tomorrow. It’s ok, he has something else to take with him.

Rigatoni Bake

This isn’t really a recipe but instead just a telling of how I made dinner.I boiled some Rigatoni and placed it in a casserole dish, I added some of my Homemade Spaghetti Sauce and stirred. I then chopped up a couple of tomatoes and some green onion and stirred that in as well. Topped with cheese and put it in the oven for about 5-10 minutes to melt. Served with a salad and some crusty bread. It was a very filling meal. I made mine a vegetarian dish, but you can use almost anything in the casserole, ground turkey, sausage, chicken, corn or just about anything. I hope that you can find inspiration with it. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you did with it.

Happy Eating,

Donna

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I got the inspiration for this sauce from watching Giada De Laurantis the other day. She made a Rigatoni Veggie Bolognese and it looked so good. So of course I thought that I would give it a try and make a Spaghetti Sauce. I made so much of it that I had some leftover and in a couple of days I can toss it with some roasted veggies and some cheese in some rigatoni and bake it.

Spaghetti Sauce

1 medium onion, quartered

3 cloves garlic, unpeeled

any veggies that you have in the fridge (carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, bell pepper, zucchini, etc) about 2 cups unchopped.

2 28oz cans chopped tomatoes

1 15oz can tomato sauce

Italian Seasoning, Sage, Bay Leaf, Oregano to taste.

Clean and cut off any stems off the vegetables, chop them into smaller pieces. Do the same thing to the onion and garlic. Place them in the food processor and pulse them til you like them.

Add about a tablespoon of olive oil into a heavy pot. Add vegetable mixture. Saute til veges are limp.

Add cans of tomatoes and tomato sauce. Add a couple of cups of water. Bring to boil and then turn down the heat. Simmer for a couple of hours. You may need to add more water.

It came out really good. If you like it smoother then go ahead and use a blender.

I served it with Italian Sausage links and Garlic Bread. I guess I should have made a salad too, but it was enough and everyone liked it.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or send me a question.

My mom used to say that whoever got the bay leaf that’s who’s turn it was to do the dishes ;)

Happy Eating :)
Donna