Vegetarian Sausage Pasta Bake

Last night, after spending the afternoon cleaning up from our camping trip, paroozing the mall and galavanting downtown (wow, quite a vocab today hey?) Francis and I came back home to start dinner. Emphasis on "I" ;) I had all of the ingredients for a wonderful dish that I knew Francis would absolutely LOVE! Despite the heat, I decided to have the oven on for about an hour and a half...probably not the best idea...we were super hot for the rest of the night! But, it was worth it :)

Vegetarian Sausage Pasta Bake

adapted from Sarah Matheny's Baked Penne with Sausage and Peppers from Peas and Thank You

Ingredients:

Makes 8-10 servings

1 pound whole wheat penne pasta

1 package of Italian Tofurky sausages

1 yellow pepper, sliced

1 red pepper, sliced

1 1/2 cups sliced onions

2 tsp minced garlic

4 cups spaghetti sauce

grated cheese

basil

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2) Prepare pasta el dente.

3) Coat a LARGE frying pan (learned from experience...) with cooking oil.  Add onions, bell peppers and sausages over medium high heat until tender.  Add sausages and garlic.  

Let cook for 5-6 more minutes.

4) Add pasta sauce to the vegetable sausage mixture and mix until combined.

5) Add 1 cup sliced fresh basil.

On a side note...is that not the biggest basil leaf you have ever seen????

6) Transfer mixture to 13 by 9 lasagna dish, which has been sprayed with cooking oil.

7) Grate as much cheese as you'd like on top, put in the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes.

6) Garnish with fresh basil.

7) Enjoy!

Have a wonderful night!

xo