Baked Penne with Sausage

5 from 12 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 your 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 add it to a 9x13 baking dish.
Meanwhile, add the sausage and onion to a skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sausage has browned (about 8-10 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.
Pour the sausage mixture into the baking dish. 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.

For the sausages, anything around the 16 ounce/1 pound ballpark is fine – it doesn’t need to be exact. You can either buy ground sausage meat or, if using whole sausages, take the meat out of the casings. Here in Canada I use a 500g pack of sausages.
One 24 oz. jar = 3 cups. Try my homemade marinara sauce if you prefer from-scratch.