Baked Penne with Sausage

5 from 8 votes

This easy baked penne recipe has plenty of Italian sausage baked with marinara sauce and lots of parmesan and mozzarella cheese!

Prep Time10

Cook Time35

Total Time45

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: baked penne, penne bake

Servings:

Preheat oven to 375F and move the rack to the top third of the oven.
Boil a salted pot of water for the pasta. Cook it for 2 minutes less than the package directions indicate. Once it's done, drain it and set it aside.
Crumble the sausage meat directly into a skillet, and add the onion in too. There should be enough fat released by the sausage to cook the onion, but if it's particularly lean, add a tablespoon of olive oil. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sausage has browned (about 10 minutes). If there's a lot of excess fat, spoon most of it out.
Stir in the garlic and cook for about a minute.
Add in the marinara sauce and red pepper flakes and cook for a couple more minutes until it's warmed through.
Add the drained pasta to a 9x13 baking dish and then pour the sausage mixture over top. I add in some salt & pepper as well. Toss until everything is coated. Smooth it out into an even layer.
Top with the cheeses and bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Broil for a few minutes to brown the cheese (watch it carefully). Serve immediately.

I used a 5-pack of Johnsonville mild Italian sausages for this recipe. Anything similar weight-wise will work. Or use ground sausage meat to skip the step of taking it out of the casings.
3 cups marinara sauce = one 24 oz. jar. There is quite a bit of sauce in this recipe, so you can use a bit less than a full jar if you don't want lots of sauce (try 2-2.5 cups). Try my homemade marinara sauce if you prefer from-scratch.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only and should be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee. Ingredients can vary and Salt & Lavender makes no guarantees to the accuracy of this information.