Baked Fusilli (Pasta)

This recipe makes a lot of food. I ate about 1/8th of it and I was stuffed. I made a meat sauce and added a layer of sour cream (you could use ricotta, but sour cream is less expensive and very tasty). Next time I'll make half the recipe. It will be enough for us for dinner and lunch.

I used the plain flavour of spaghetti sauce. Don't use the ones that have added things like meat, veggies and spices as it could ruin the flavour of your dish. Or you could use homemade of course!

My store sells freshly grated Parmesan. If yours doesn't, splurge a little and buy a wedge. It tastes better than the can of powdery stuff.

Baked Fusilli (Pasta)
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

• 450grams fusilli (I used 1/2 a bag)
• 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 8 oz mushrooms, diced (hide them from the kids)
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning blend
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 640ml jar of spaghetti sauce
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• 3 cups grated mozzarella
• 1 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Boil the pasta according to package directions. You want it a little under cooked because it will go into the oven later.
3. Meanwhile, cook the beef, onions, mushrooms and garlic in a large nonstick pan over medium high heat. Cook it until the meat is no longer pink and the vegetables are soft. About 10 minutes or so. You don't need to add oil, the beef has enough grease in it. If there's liquid in the pan, you can drain it, but mine didn't have any.
4. Stir in the oregano, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper followed by the tomato sauce. You can turn off the heat at this point.
5. Drain your pasta well (do not rinse!) and dump it into the pan with the meat mixture. Stir it up.
6. Place 1/3 of the pasta into a 9x13" glass baking dish. Top that with 1/3 of the mozzarella. Add another 1/3 of the pasta, then spread the sour cream over the top of that. Sprinkle with another 1/3 of the mozzarella. Now, another layer of pasta followed by the rest of the mozzarella and a good sprinkling of parm.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted. I placed a pan under it just in case it bubbled over, but it didn't happen. Better to be safe. Cleaning the oven isn't my favourite thing to do.
8. Let it cool a bit before you eat it. It's hot!