Weekend Dinner - Baked Pasta With Chicken Sausage

(Daddy Rating 4/5)

(This is from an old "Everyday Food" magazine that I grabbed from my mom. I meant to cook this over the weekend, but I wasnt' feeling well and the Oscars were on so it got bumped to a Monday night...sort of a mistake, it was too much to do on a week night but it was good, so we'll keep it on hand for a Weekend Dinner or if we have company over)

Ingredients:
- Olive Oil
- Salt/Pepper
- 1 medium red onion (I used yellow)
- 1/4 cup vodka (Optional, I didn't use it)
- 1 can 28 oz whole tomatoes, lightly crushed with your hands
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 cup cream
- 1 lb rigatoni (I used cavatappi because I like the fun shape better, you won't use the hole pound, you will have some plain pasta left if you need to reserve some for picky eaters)
- 10 oz Baby Spinach (I used frozen and pressed out the water because I'm cheap, but fresh would have been a lot easier)
- 12 oz smoked chicken sausage (I used some chicken sausage from Target that has spinach in it)
- 6 oz fontina cheese (I used 8oz)
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (Or enough to cover the top of the casserole in the dish)

Everything finally chopped up....

Start the water boiling for the pasta. Then heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat (as large as you can because you wind up mixing the ingredients with the pasta in this skillet). Add onion; cook until translucent (about 3 min). Stir in garlic. Turn down heat and add vodka if you're using it. Turn heat back up until evaporated (about 1 min).

Trying to occupy baby girl by making drums out of mixing bowls so I can chop ingredients.

Stir in tomatoes and oregano and cook until tomatoes are falling apart (about 10-15 min). Add cream and cook until warmed through (about 5 min). Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400*. Start the pasta cooking.

Drums got old, so baby girl cleaned out the spice cabinet for me...

Add Spinach and chicken sausage to skillet until wilted (if using fresh).  Combine cooked pasta (do it in small batches, you may not want to use all the pasta) and fontina cheese to the tomato sauce in the skillet and toss to coat.

Divide evenly into whatever baking dishes you have. Top with Parm to your liking and back until browned and edges are crisp - about 20-30 min.

YAY! Finally in the oven! My husband ate the dish on the left for dinner and we still had plenty of left overs

Always serve with a glass of wine.