Thursday, October 2, 2014

Bats And Cobwebs




Here is a fun recipe just in time for Halloween...Bats and Cobwebs!  Made with bowtie pasta (bats) and lots of gooey mozzarella cheese (for the cobwebs).  Not only is this fun and easy recipe to make it also tastes great!  I have been making a version of this for years now but at other times of the year I normally use different types of pasta.  The original recipe used ground beef and is found here at Allrecipes.com but this time I substituted the ground beef with Johnsonville® mild Italian sausage and that made this so much tastier!  My family really loved this.  If you have little ones this would be a fun recipe to make for Halloween as it can be prepared ahead of time and baked before you head out to go trick or treating.  Hope you enjoy!
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Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) package farfalle (bow tie) pasta
1 pound Johnsonville® Italian sausage
1 small onion, chopped (optional)
1 (28 ounce) jar pasta sauce
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

 Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
  2. Fill a large pot with lightly salted water, bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Stir in the bow tie pasta and return to a boil. Boil pasta, stirring occasionally, until cooked through but still firm to the bite, about 12 minutes. Drain well.
  3. Cook and stir sausage and onion in a large skillet until sausage is cooked through.  Drain fat. Stir in pasta sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer.
  4. Stir cooked pasta and half of the mozzarella cheese into the sauce; toss to combine. Transfer to a 2-quart baking dish. Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
  5. Bake in preheated oven until lightly browned and bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes.