Ingredients:
4 Hot Italian sausage links (about 1 lb), casings removed
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
28 oz crushed tomatoes
14 oz diced tomatoes
1 bunch basil, chopped
1 lb ricotta
12 oz rigatoni, cooked until slightly less than al dente
1 cup mozzarella

Directions:
Saute the sausage until well cooked in a large, high walled skillet. Drain and add the onion and garlic. Saute until the onion is translucent. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Stir in the basil. Stir in the pasta, cook for 10-15 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Stir in the ricotta. Top with mozzarella, cover and until the mozzarella is melted.

My thoughts:

We bought all of the ingredients to make baked rigatoni and then yesterday ended up being the hottest day of 2016 so far. 80! I couldn’t bare to turn on the oven. I didn’t want the ingredients so go to waste so I came up with this. I figured when making baked pasta dishes you basically make the whole meal and then stick in the oven for 40 minutes to melt the cheese. This skips that step by melding all the ingredients on the stove top, then melting the cheese. You do miss some of the crispy bits if that is your thing but the result was quite similar but quicker and didn’t heat up the house!