Italian Turkey Sausage & Penne Bake

Monday night I made up a recipe. I do that a lot! I just find ingredients in the fridge and throw something together for dinner! My husband is a little picky with what he eats and he loved this! I had it again for dinner last night and brought it for lunch today! I think I am going to freeze the rest for another day. That’s the best part about leftovers!!! You can use any brands of the ingredients below or substitute the penne with spaghetti or whatever noodle you have. Use what you have on hand! Next Time, I’ll take pictures of what I do and post along with recipe! Hoepfully the directions make sense.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pkg of Perdue Sweet Italian Sausage (5 sausages in container)
•  1/2 Green Pepper
• 1/2 Small Summer Squash
• 1/2 Small Zucchini
• 2 TBSP Spice World Minced Garlic
• 1/2 White Onion
• 1/2 box of Creamette Penne Pasta
• 1/2 jar of Newman’s Own Tomato & Basil Bombolina Sauce (You can use full jar if you want)
• 2-3 TBSP Olive Oil (enough to cover bottom of pan)
• A few handfuls Kroger Brand Hot Pepper Blend Cheese
• 2-4 cups of Kroger Brand Mozzarella Cheese
• 1/4 cup Kroger Brand Parmesan Cheese
•  Approx. 1 TBSP Parsley

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees (mine was set on 400 but my oven temp is about 25 degrees hotter than typical ovens)
2. Wash & Cut green pepper in half, cut out inside and get rid of seeds. Take one and put away to use in another meal. The other half of the green pepper cut into match sticks and then dice.
3. Wash Squash & Zucchini. Cut each in half. Put 1/2 of each away for later use. Take the remaining halves and cut off end of each. Cut into circles. Cut circles into 4ths.
4. Remove skin from onion. Cut in half. Put 1/2 away for later use. Take remaining half and dice into small pieces.
5. Put diced pepper, squash & zucchini 1/4ths and diced onion into a bowl.
6. Add 2 TBSP of minced garlic to bowl.
7. Add 2-3 TBSP (enough to cover bottom of pan) of olive oil to a 10″-12″ skillet and turn burner on 7 or med high.
8. Once oil is hot add bowl of ingredients to skillet, stirring every few minutes. Once mixture has been cooking for a few moments add a lid to pan and continue to cook until onions are see through and veggies appear to be done.
9. Remove sausage from pkg and remove sausage casings. The best way to do it, is to cut a slit down the length of the sausage and then remove casing.
10. Tear or cut sausage into small pieces.
11. Once veggie mix looks down add sausage to pan and cover. Stir often. You may need to turn down heat depending upon your stove.
12. Cook Penne noodles al dente according to the pkg directions. Drain water from noodles and leave sitting in drainer/strainer.
13. When sausage is thoroughly cooked, turn off burner and drain grease from pan. Be careful not to lose garlic and onions.
14. Add tomato & basil sauce to sausage & veggie mix and stir until thoroughly coated.
15. Sprinkle some Parsley onto the mixture and stir.
16. Put Penne noodles into 9×13 pan. I used a stoneware pan so I didn’t need to spray with cooking spray. If you use glass or metal you will need to spray with a light coating of cooking spray before you add noodles.
17. Add sauce, sausage and veggie mix to noodles and stir until noodles are thoroughly coated. Add more sauce if needed or if you want. We don’t like a lot of sauce, just enough for flavor.
18. Add 2-4 cups of mozzarella cheese and stir to evenly coat noodles.
19. Grab a few handfuls of hot cheese and mix into noodles.
20. Add Parmesan and stir in to mix thoroughly.
21. I added some cheese on top so the Penne Bake would be melty and gooey.
22. Add to oven and bake about 8 minutes or until cheese has melted.
23. Take out and enjoy!