Who doesn’t love spaghetti?  Welllllllll, I do not like generic spaghetti with the plain old spaghetti sauce. Nope, I don’t even if I am invited over and have to have it I am always looking for cheddar cheese or at the very least a bottle of Texas Pete (lol)! Yes, I said Texas Pete.  So I started messing around with some pasta bake ideas and this is what I came up with… it’s rich and creamy and fresh tasting all at the same time! So let’s get started.

You will need:

• 1 lb of sausage. ( I used the delicious kind our local grocer makes homemade, just your common breakfast sausage spiced)
• 1 lb or less of lean ground beef (My package was 3/4 lb)
• 1 Can on Hunts Italian Sausage sauce
• 1 (cup) jar of your favorite marinara (you will not use all of this, maybe 1 cup.
• 2 garlic cloves crushed and diced
• 1 small yellow or red onion diced
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 cups mild cheddar cheese
• 1 box of your favorite Linguine
• 8oz mascarpone Cheese
• 1/2 Cup Sour Cream (I used reduced fat. Why, I don’t know lol)
• 1 small handful of basil diced
• 2 TB extra virgin olive oil

First things first, let’s get the onions and garlic going in a saute pan with the 2 TB of olive oil.You can see here I used a small red onion and really it is just a preference thing you can use which ever small onion you wish. Saute these until the onion is a bit translucent and then we can add the sausage and ground beef.

I placed the meat right on top of the onions and garlic and then worked it around the pan with a whisk to get a crumbly effect, giving me small pieces and chunks.At this point while the meat is soaking up all those flavors I get my water started to a boil and add my noodles. Use whatever is your favorite it really won’t matter.Start cutting off that fresh basil and chop….

Excuse the fuzzy picture but you get the idea 🙂

Now lets make the cheese mixture…1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, 8oz mascarpone cheese and 1/2 cup sour cream and fresh basil. 1 (cup) jar of your favorite marinara.

Whisk that all together until it’s nice and creamy, then set aside. Time to get the pan ready. I am using a 11×9 glass dish.  I lightly sprayed the bottom with some olive oil spray.  Take the meat off the stove and drain.In a large bowl add the meat mixture, sauce (1 can of Hunts Italian Sausage sauce) and drained noodles.

Mix it all together. You can see I used two kinds of noodles ..it’s called whatever is left in the box :).   Mix all this together loosely.

Now comes the fun part! Let’s start layering. Get that pan ready and start with the pasta on the bottom.. then layer the cheese mixture kind of like lasagna.   Preheat your oven to 350*I know, I know not that pretty but wait until you taste it!!And for the last layer, sprinkle some parmesan cheese and then layer on the cheddar.  2 cups mild cheddar cheese. Yes, the entire amount!!  Place in the oven and bake for about 30-40min until nice and bubbly and looks like below!Enjoy!!!!!!!