No-Boil Pasta Bake

By sherryl61

This is a very easy and tasty way to prepare pasta without boiling and free up the time for something else. And it tastes like you've been working hard on it!

Ingredients

• 1 pound box of your favorite dry pasta (I prefer penne, rigatoni, or fusilli as it holds the sauce well)
• 1 small (about 24 ounce) jar of your favorite sauce (or use 2 1/2 cups of your homemade sauce)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• Optional: 1/2-3/4 cup of your favorite cheese

Details

Preparation time 5mins
Cooking time 60mins

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine sauce and water.
3. Pour DRY pasta into bottom of oven-safe casserole dish.
4. Cover with sauce mixture and gently stir to combine. If using spaghetti noodles, break noodles to fit into casserole dish.
5. Cover with foil. Bake for 45 minutes.
6. If you want to use cheese, at this point add cheese to top and leave uncovered. Bake an additional 5-10 minutes until bubbly.

Note: You can add chunks of mozzarella cheese to the dish at the beginning and mix into the pasta for gooey bites. Yum!
This recipe leads to slightly al dente pasta. If you want even firmer pasta, reduce the water to 1 cup.