Baked Pasta with Sausage & Spinach

Baked Pasta with Sausage & Spinach – seriously delicious!! Can make ahead and freeze for later. Italian sausage, spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes, cottage cheese, sour cream, spinach, spaghetti, parsley, garlic, Monterey jack cheese, mozzarella cheese, french fried onions. Seriously THE BEST! Everyone cleaned their plate and went back for seconds! That never happens in our house. This is a keeper!! #casserole #spaghetti #freezermeal

This Baked Pasta with Sausage & Spinach is loaded with all my favorites! Italian sausage, cottage cheese, pasta sauce, spinach, mozzarella and french fried onions – YUM!! You can make this ahead of time and refrigerate or freezer for later. I usually split the casserole in half. I bake one for dinner and freeze the other one for a quick meal later.

We loved this Baked Pasta with Sausage & Spinach. We ate it for lunch and leftover for dinner the same day! It might have been bette reheated. Pasta is like that. The longer it sits the better it gets. We served this with a simple salad and some garlic bread. YUM!

If you aren’t a fan of Italian sausage, you can swap it out for Italian turkey sausage or ground beef. If you use ground beef, just add some Italian seasoning to the meat. I used a jar of Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic Marinara for the spaghetti sauce in this casserole. It is my favorite jarred sauce. If you can’t find it, try Rao’s or  La Famiglia DelGrosso sauces. I love both of those too!

As I said, this Baked Pasta with Sausage & Spinach was a hit in our house. It had just the right amount of spinach for us. I think a little spinach goes a long way. Feel free to double it up if you are Popeye!

Recipe Print Recipe

Baked Pasta with Sausage & Spinach

Author: Plain Chicken

Yield: 8 people

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Baked Pasta with Sausage & Spinach – seriously delicious!! Can make ahead and freeze for later. Italian sausage, spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes, cottage cheese, sour cream, spinach, spaghetti, parsley, garlic, monterey jack cheese, mozzarella cheese, french fried onions. Seriously THE BEST! Everyone cleaned their plate and went back for seconds! That never happens in our house. This is a keeper!! #casserole #spaghetti #freezermeal

Equipment:

• 12-inch Non-Stick Skillet
• Meat Masher Tool
• Rotary Cheese Grater
• Mixing Bowls
• 9×13-inch Baking Dish

Ingredients:

• 12- oz dry spaghetti
• 2 lb Italian sausage
• 1 (26-oz) jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 (14.5-oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (10-oz) box frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 2 cups cottage cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 Tbsp parsley
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• 1½ cups shredded Monterey jack cheese
• 1½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 (2.8-oz) can French fried onions

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
• Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.
• In a large skillet, cook sausage until no longer pink. Drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce, tomatoes and spinach. Set aside.
• Mix together cottage cheese, sour cream, parsley, garlic powder, ½ cup Monterey jack cheese and ½ cup mozzarella cheese.
• Spread cooked spaghetti in bottom of prepared baking dish. Top with cottage cheese mixture. Spread meat sauce on top of cottage cheese mixture. Sprinkle remaining Monterey jack and mozzarella cheese on top. Cover with foil.
• Bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle French fried onions on top of casserole. Bake an additional 5 minutes.

Video:

Notes:

Can make casserole in advance and refrigerate or freeze for later.

To bake after refrigerating, you make need to add a few minutes to the cooking time.

To bake after freezing, thaw completely and bake as directed above.

Plain Chicken

https://www.plainchicken.com/baked-pasta-with-sausage-spinach/

All images and text © Plain Chicken, Inc.

Did you make this recipe?Mention @plainchicken or tag #plainchicken!

Steph