Italian Pasta Bake

Sometimes nothing beats the simple, familiar tastes of home.  This is a dish I've known and loved for many years in my mother's kitchen.  Nothing necessarily gourmet about it, but you can't go wrong with noodles, meat, and cheese.  It reminds me of coming home from swim practice absolutely ravenous, needing hot food on my plate, like, yesterday.  And eating half the baking pan myself barely even taking a breath.

Don't believe something so simple can be so good?  Read on...

I like to claim that I am not a picky eater.... just particular...  And I particularly choose not to eat leftover spaghetti.  Ever.  It just re-heats weird.  Can't stand it.  Never have.  Drove my mom crazy.  This dish, however, I will eat over and over and over again.  Any time of day.  In any condition.  No matter how many days it has been considered a 'leftover.'  I will eat it cold for breakfast or a random snack.  Oh yes. Pasta for a snack.  I will eat it hot out of the oven.  Still so hot that the cheese burns the roof of my mouth.  It's worth it.  I will pick out the best, cheesiest noodles remaining in the pan while I am supposed to be doing the dishes.  I will re-heat it for lunch or dinner.

Dreams of this dinner would get me through sets of 10 x 200 IMs x on some-interval-that-was-really-tough-but-it's-been-so-long-since-I-swam-that-I-couldn't-tell-you-what-that-would-be-anymore....

Seriously, don't you just want to dive in?

So, while this doesn't fall in line with trying out new recipes and broadening my cooking horizons, it is simply too good not to share!

Recipe:
1 lb. ground beef (I use extra lean.)
3 cups penne or rotini pasta, cooked, drained (I use Barilla Plus penne because mom always did.  And mom knows best.)
1 jar (26 - 28 oz.) your favorite spaghetti sauce (marinara is better than chunky style)
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 8-oz. package shredded mozzarella cheese

Brown meat in a large skillet; drain.  Stir in pasta, sauce, and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese.

Spoon into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish.  Top with mozzarella cheese and remaining 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Verdict:
Obviously you already know how I feel about it.  If you try it / have tried it before, leave a comment and let me know what you think!  Fair warning, the biggest con here is that it takes two pots and a baking dish to prepare, so while the cooking process is really quite simple, the clean-up process is sadly not.  Start a rule that 'whoever cooks doesn't clean up' though and you'll be golden!

Or... just suffer in silence because this dinner and the very edible leftovers it provides are worth a few minutes of scrubbing.