Sausage & Spinach Pasta Bake

When I make tomato relish, I will usually over order tomatoes from my supplier, so that I can make some tomato passata too. My recipe for passata is not traditional, but it’s quick and tasty and makes enough for this tasty pasta bake. You can double/triple the recipe if you want to make a bit more (for chicken parms, tuna pasta, add it to your bolognese, give a jar to friends…).
This pasta bake is feelgood, easy – squeezing the meat out of the pork sausages is a nice little shortcut, the spinach ensures an intake of something green and the ricotta/feta combo is a heck of a lot quicker than making a bechamel.
If you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, this is a great thing for the person in your house who gets dibs on them! Enjoy!

Serves 6

Tomato Passata
Cut 1kg of tomatoes into quarters and throw into a roomy baking dish with a big drizzle of olive oil, a couple of garlic cloves (finely sliced), juice of half a lemon, a teaspoon of dried oregano, a generous grinding of S&P, a teaspoon of sugar and ½ teaspoon of ground cumin. Roast at 160 degrees C for 1 hour (until the tomatoes are soft and juicy, with a little char on the tips). Once cool, blend to a juicy puree.

 Sausage & Fennel
Squeeze the meat out of 500g of pork sausages (the better the quality, the better the result!). Fry these blobs in a little olive oil, over med-high heat. As they start to brown and caramelise, throw in a teaspoon of fennel seeds and ½ teaspoon of dried chilli flakes (leave these out if your gang don’t like spice!) and squash it all up a bit, breaking up the blobs of meat. Right at the end, squeeze in half a lemon and toss. Set aside.

 Spinach & Ricotta
Steam a big bunch of spinach/chard/silverbeet in a large pan, on low heat with the lid on. Once soft, drain and let cool. Squeeze any extra liquid out and roughly chop. Throw in a bowl with 250g ricotta, 100g soft fetta (crumbled), a couple of shallots (finely sliced), a handful of basil leaves (roughly chopped) and a good grinding of pepper.

 Pasta Bake
Cook approx. 400g of pasta (my fave to use for this is extra large shells, but if you can’t get them, my backup is rigatoni) in boiling salty water, until al dente. Drain, reserving a little of the cooking water.

Grab a baking dish (I use my fave lasagne dish!) and splash a bit of passata on the bottom then dump in the cooked pasta. Drizzle a bit more passata over the top and jostle it all around (use the pasta water here if you think it needs a little more moisture). Add the sausage mixture, pushing the blobs of meat into the shells a bit. Spread the ricotta & spinach mixture of the top and then pour over the rest of the passata, so it’s all covered.

Grate a cup of mozzarella and ½ cup of parmesan, rake it all together and sprinkle it over the top.

Bake at 200 degrees C for around 30 minutes or until cheese is melted, bubbly and golden.

Let it sit for 5 minutes before serving. Pour yourself a lovely glass of crisp white wine while the kids set the table!

Serve & enjoy!

A feel-good easy dinner for a crowd.