Hi there! I hope you had a fantastic weekend! Before I get to the Super Cheesy Penne Pasta Bake recipe, I wanted to thank you so much for all the honest feedback. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to help me make this a blog you want to read.
So far, I’ve realized that you love the recipes and the pasta ideas, and I am more than happy to feature more of that! Although, my husband did joke when I was sharing your comments, “I guess this means more trips to the supermarket?”
Absolutely, honey! Now, if you haven’t had the chance to let me know what you’d like to see on this blog, I’m going to leave the form up for a little while. Feel free to stop by anytime and let me know what you think.
What do you say we get on to the food?
On Monday, we had Grandma over for lunch, and I made this Super Cheesy Penne Pasta Bake recipe.
This is a bit time-intensive to throw together, but in under 2 hours, you can make enough to feed a big crowd or freeze (before baking!) for quick weeknight dinners. You can create as much as I did or cut the recipe down.
This is a guaranteed delicious recipe that your family will love. It’s a treasured recipe that I always wanted to gatekeep. But how can I resist sharing such a good recipe? I don’t think anyone can say no to a good serving of pasta.
I call it pasta magic! It’s unbelievable how one can not like pasta. I feel like they are among the best comfort food out there. No matter what your age is and wherever you are, it’s easy to satisfy people who want a filling and delicious meal.
I am telling you that this Super Cheesy Penne Pasta Bake recipe is a must-try. While you may have tasted lots of other pasta recipes before, this one’s a classic but filled with a unique twist that you and your family will genuinely enjoy.
If you’re looking for an easy yet very exquisite recipe, you can try this fantastic recipe that I treasure.
I remember my friend the first time she tasted this, “This is so good! Where have you been all my life!” Since then, she constantly nagged about copying this yummy Super Cheesy Penne Pasta Bake Recipe.
I’m not saying this because I want to brag about my recipe; I was just so proud that a picky eater like her would love my recipe. Now, she always tells me about how she would cook this on special occasions.
Super Cheesy Penne Pasta Bake Recipe
Print RecipeIngredients
- 3 pounds of ground beef
- 2 boxes of whole-grain (or regular) penne or rotini
- 2 large jars of pasta sauce
- 3 bags of shredded mozzarella or Italian blend cheese
- Salt
- Garlic powder
- At least 3 standard baking dishes or 2 large ones
Instructions
- Start by browning all of your ground beef. If you don’t have a very large sauté pan, break it up into batches to brown. Drain off all the excess grease, and set it aside.
- Boil up 2 boxes of pasta, drain, and set aside. Oh, and for the love of everything proper Italian cooking, don’t add oil to your pasta water! It kills me when I see people do that. That’s just not how it’s done.
- Keep your water at a rolling boil; add salt, and it won’t stick together. If you put oil in your pasta water, your sauce will slip off of your pasta, and we don’t want that. The sauce should stick, not slip.
- When I said 2 large jars of sauce, I meant it. Three would be even better, but two works. Note: This is the kind I use and love, and Ragu has no clue who I am.
- Pour both jars into a large pot, and add all your cooked ground beef. Add salt and garlic powder to taste. That means adding half a jar of garlic powder in my house and then a few chopped cloves. We love garlic.
- Mix it together and get yourself ready to assemble everything.
- Grab your first baking dish. My favourites are Corningware and Pyrex because they beautifully go from freezer to oven. Spread a thin layer of the prepared sauce on the bottom of your dish.
- Add a layer of pasta next, keeping each layer reasonably thin.
- Then top the pasta with a layer of cheese.
- I used an Italian blend cheese, mainly because I love lots of cheese, and it was on sale. Mozzarella works well too. Note: Not being compensated or given free cheese. Though I probably wouldn’t turn it down. I love cheese.
- Keep adding layers until you’re near the top of your dish: sauce, pasta, cheese. When you get to the last layer of pasta, we switch it up slightly.
- Then we put a thin layer of sauce. Why? Because we don’t want the top pasta to dry out in the oven when we’re heating it up and melting the cheese.
- Put the last layer of cheese on, and you’re ready to go!
- Now do it two more times. That is a ton of Penne Pasta Bake, but it can feed about 2 dozen people or keep great tightly covered in the freezer for 3 months.
- Throw it in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes to warm it up.
- If it’s frozen, cover it with aluminium foil and bake for 40 minutes, and take off the foil and bake the pasta for an additional 20 minutes or until warm in the middle with melty cheese on top.
