Sausage and Ricotta Baked Rigatoni

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Grease a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add rigatoni noodles and salt. Cook noodles for 6 to 7 minutes. Drain and set aside. (Note: Noodles will still be crunchy in center.)

While the water boils and the noodles cook, heat a medium to large skillet over medium heat. Pour in olive oil and allow to warm. Once heated, add sausage to the pan and allow to cook for 3 minutes, breaking up sausage with a spoon as it cooks. After 3 minutes, add diced onion to the skillet and continue to cook sausage, breaking it up with the spoon, until sausage is fully cooked (about another 5 minutes). Once sausage and onions have cooked, drain off any excess fat and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine ricotta, Parmesan, parsley and dried basil. Stir to combine and set aside.

In a large pot (preferably the one you cooked your pasta in), return cooked noodles, sausage, and marinara sauce. Stir to combine. Pour half of noodle mixture into prepared baking dish. Dot with half of the ricotta mixture. Pour on remaining noodles and top with remaining ricotta. Place provolone cheese slices on top.

Place the prepared rigatoni in the oven to cook for 20 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Recipe adapted from FoodieCrush.