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Baked Rotini with Italian Sausage is savory, cheesy, and a little spicy. It is an easy dinner and can be frozen and reheated later.
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This Italian Sausage Rotini is a husband favorite (our kids love it too)! It’s a little spicy and really cheesy and just yummy. There usually isn’t any left. I love it because it is so easy to throw together and pop in the oven. If there are any leftovers, this reheats really well for lunches. I have also done this as a freezer meal before, just freeze it and then thaw it out before baking. It makes a perfect meal for neighbors too, but I usually leave out the red pepper flakes if I am giving it to other people. We like it spicy but I know some people aren’t a fan of the heat.
Ingredients in Baked Rotini
This easy pasta dish is flavorful, hearty and always a warm welcome meal at our dinner table. If you’re looking for a meal to make for a neighbor, church potluck or your own family, try this easy one! Here’s all you need:
- Olive oil – one tablespoon extra virgin olive oil. You can use regular olive oil as well.
- Minced garlic – two teaspoons or a couple of cloves of fresh garlic, finely chopped
- Ground Italian sausage – one pound of uncooked sausage. You’ll make little sausage balls and fry up in the olive oil in a dutch oven or saucepan over medium heat.
- Pasta – 32 ounces or one box of rotini pasta. You can use bowtie, or wagon wheel noodles too!
- Spaghetti sauce – about 24 ounces of your favorite jar of sauce. I love using the four-cheese sauce but you can use anything you have on hand.
- Red pepper flakes – up to one teaspoon. If you are serving this to your kids and they don’t love spice, you can just add a pinch.
- Mozzarella cheese – you’ll need two cups total, divided.
Pasta in All Shapes and Sizes
Even though this is an Italian sausage rotini bake, that doesn’t mean you have to use rotini noodles. We like to mix it up sometimes with bowtie pasta, ziti, wagon wheels, penne pasta, rigatoni pasta and more. Or use them all at the same time. It’s amazing how the different shape of noodles feel like they alter the flavor slightly. In reality, the shape of pasta doesn’t change the taste of the noodle, but it can change the way it mingles with the sauce, based on surface area, thickness of the noodle etc. Regardless, using multiple pastas works out well! You can also make this recipe with gluten-free pasta.
How to Make Perfect Pasta
- To make the perfect pasta, first, you will need the perfect pot! A large pot is best because it gives the pasta plenty of room to move around in and not be stuck in a clump.
- Bring water and about a tablespoon of salt to a boil in your large pot. Once your water is boiling, add the pasta and cook until the pasta is al dente (literally translated ‘to the tooth’ it is an Italian term that describes the perfect consistency of pasta when cooked– firm when bitten without being too hard or raw). Remember to stir your pasta as it cooks!
- Now you have al dente pasta, it should take about 8-10 minutes, it’s time to drain, but don’t rinse it off! You want that extra bit of starch to remain on the noodles. You have the perfect pasta!
- What’s next? There are endless pasta-bilities! Whether you mix tomato sauce and ricotta and throw it in a baking dish, or simply mix in marinara sauce, create one giant meatball, and call it spaghetti, there are so many pasta recipes you can enjoy!
More Variations to this Baked Rotini
This baked pasta dish is so versatile, that once you have a basic recipe you can switch it up for other ingredients that you have on hand or family preferences. For example:
- Turn this into a baked rigatoni recipe or baked ziti, any baked pasta you like!
- Toss in a handful or so of fresh spinach.
- Chop and add other fresh vegetables like zucchini, broccoli, diced red or green peppers, any veggies you want.
- No sausage? No problem! You can use ground beef, ground turkey or chicken, turkey sausage, any kind of ground meat works for this recipe.
- For extra flavor, add a tsp of dried oregano.
- Add ricotta cheese or shredded parmesan to the pasta sauce.
How to Store Leftovers
This sausage pasta bake stores well in the refrigerator. Just cover the pan with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and eat within three to four days. You can reheat individual servings in the microwave or pop the whole baking dish back into the oven until heated through. This is a terrific recipe to make and freeze ahead of time, too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil are good because they aren’t highly processed oils and they have a moderate to high smoke point. However, you only need a very little bit of oil in your skillet to cook Italian sausage because they are quite fatty themselves and will release oil as they cook.
Most pasta bake recipes require you to pre-boil your pasta until it’s al dente, then finish in the oven. Just baking the pasta won’t cook it as well, and the noodles will be crunchy and not tender at all.
You can mix in any cheese you like! We like asiago, Romano, and parmesan.
Read More: 35+ Quick and Easy To Follow Dinner Ideas Your Family Will Surely Love
Something on the Side
Serve this delicious, cheesy dish with a side Caesar salad or green salad, fresh bread sticks or garlic bread, and fresh veggies. Try some of these favorite side dishes:
- Cheesy Italian Bread is so easy and delicious, you can even get your kids involved in making it.
- Hot Cheese Bread works well as an appetizer or a side dish; pairing well with this rotini dish.
- Easy Vinegar Marinated Cucumber Salad adds some crunch and extra flavor to your meal.
How To Make Baked Rotini with Italian Sausage
Baked Italian Sausage Rotini
Equipment
- 9×13 inch pan
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 pound ground italian sausage
- 16 ounces rotini pasta
- 36 ounces pasta sauce of choice
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese divided
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions.
- Roll the ground Italian sausage into small balls.
- In a large fry pan, brown the garlic in olive oil. Then add sausage balls and cook until browned.
- In a large bowl toss together the sausage with all the other ingredients reserving 1 cup of cheese.
- Pour pasta mixture into a 9×13 inch pan lined with cooking spray.
- Bake at 375 for 25 min. Top with remaining cheese and bake 5 more minutes.
Notes
- To garnish, sprinkle with fresh parsley and basil and a generous handful of parmesan cheese.
- Turn this into a baked rigatoni recipe or baked ziti, any baked pasta you like!
- Toss in a handful or so of fresh spinach.
- Chop and add other fresh vegetables like zucchini, broccoli, diced red or green peppers, any veggies you want.
- No sausage? No problem! You can use ground beef, ground turkey or chicken, turkey sausage, any kind of ground meat works for this recipe.
I’m a sucker for any pasta or lasagna food, so this was a home run for my family! It was super easy to make and I loved how it turned out! Thank you for this amazing recipe!!
So good! One of our favorite easy meals – we never have any leftovers!
Hi. I want to try your baked Italian sausage Rotini and I need to know what cheese to use instead of canned spaghetti sauce with cheese I cannot eat that. Thank you
You can mix in any cheese you like! We like asiago, Romano, and parmesan!
Love this recipe! How do you make those twisty breadsticks in the photo? Thanks!
My family and I love this recipe , very delicious.
this sounds great! What size jar of spaghetti sauce did you use?
I use a 24 oz. jar. I went ahead and added that to the recipe. Thanks!
We can’t do spicy, but this looks delicious. Can I leave out the pepper flakes (say yes please…lol)?
Of course you can leave them out! 🙂
I love the wagon wheel noodles ! Very easy recipe that sounds delic ! Great photo too. I want to make this and sneak in some veggies or maybe use spaghetti sauce that has ’em in there:)
my 18 year old daughter is back from BYU for the summer and made this for dinner this evening. We had some left over homemade sauce from the chicken parmesan meal a couple of nights ago.She mixed the left over sauce with a jar of the 4 cheese sauce. This was a big hit at our house. I think it is a super kid friendly meal. We all loved it!
Stephanie Quinn, Mt Airy, MD