This is the week of the year where it’s pasta for every meal, right? At least it is for us. Between Xmas and new years, we don’t know from vegetables. And if you’re exhausted from cooking up intricate holiday meals, this one comes in handy. Add a salad to feel well rounded and call it a day.
You’ll need to do two things to prep: cook off rigatoni (very al dente) and brown some Italian sausage (casing removed, crumbled). The it’s time to assemble. Start by spreading a very thin, spotty layer of Alfredo sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Then just layer like lasagna: layer of rigatoni, followed by a layer of Alfredo, then a layer of sausage, a layer of shredded mozzarella, and finally a layer of pesto that you drop as spoonfuls and then spread out. Then do it all over again. Finish it off with a topping of grated parm, panko, and dots of butter.
This was a great way to mix up your standard baked pasta dish. It went over particularly well in my house with my pesto-loving child who prefers white sauce over red. I love that all the individual components are fully flavored – the sausage and pesto do a lot of the work so you don’t have to bother yourself with seasoning beyond salt. I will say that brand makes a difference here. When I made this with not-preferred varieties of pesto and Alfredo, I didn’t like it nearly as much as when I use my go-to brands. Sauces are not all created equal, my friends.
Peaches to Apples 