
Baked Bucatini Casserole
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Heat olive oil in a large skillet
Add garlic, sauté finely chopped onion, green bell pepper and red bell pepper
I’m kidding here – I just added a bag of onion/pepper mix from my freezer.
Add one package of sweet Italian sausage
Make homemade Italian meatballs by hand (kidding again, I threw in a handful of the frozen ones, also from my freezer stash)
After meat browns, add fresh tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt and pepper (or not – you can also use a large can of Hunt’s Garlic and Herb Pasta Sauce). Throw away can lid.
Bring to a bubble, then simmer while pasta cooks.
Fill a large pot with water, add a little salt and bring to a boil. Go to cabinet to get box of Bucatini. Toss out almost empty box of Bucatini.
Baked FettuccineCasserole
Follow instructions above.
When water boils, add a package of Fettuccine (make that half a package since the Hubby just called to say he wasn’t coming home until late)
Turn off heat under tomato and meat mixture, grab container of cream cheese and a large spoon.
Run to check the Tykester email when your computer chimes, then spend two minutes seeing if anyone retweeted your last tweet.
Pick up container of cream cheese, dump into tomato and meat mixture. Stir.
Comment on how creamy the mixture is.
Re-check recipe. Discover you cannot remove ¾ cup of cream cheese from mixture.
CREAMY BAKED FETTUCCINE CASSEROLE
Follow directions above.
Drain cooked fettuccine, add to cheese, tomato and meat mixture. Stir well.
Pour into a casserole dish and decide that – what the hell, you’ve already blown the fat content, so cover the whole dang dish with mozzarella cheese and throw it in the oven.
Get out salad ingredients. Check Facebook on computer (conveniently left on kitchen counter)
After 20 minutes, decide to forgo the salad (since this dinner has no chance of being healthy anyway).
Take casserole out of oven, let sit for ten minutes while you double check that husband is not coming home for dinner and recheck your Twitter feed.
Best eaten right out of the dish, using the serving spoon, accompanied by a large glass of wine.
Makes one serving.