Sausage & Sweetcorn Pasta Bake

As a uni student, one of the quickest and easiest things to cook with is pasta. But it gets a bit boring sometimes, so making it into a pasta bake is the perfect way to make pasta interesting! There are so many things to add into the recipe, but I made mine with sausage and sweetcorn. Two of the biggest requests from my survey are more blog-style chatty posts, and more meal recipes. So this will hopefully cover both of them!

Pasta bake just isn't the same without the amazing cheesy topping!

What I used... 
These are very rough ingredients as I tend to measure by how much I fancy eating...

• Penne pasta - I measure it by pouring the right amount into the bowl I'll serve it in. Remember to pour a bit less into the bowl than you'd like, because it roughly doubles in size when it's boiled!
• Approx 4 tbsp sweetcorn
• 3 sausages (And I'm not afraid to say that yes, I used Asda Smart Price sausages... they worked fine!)
• Enough passata to mix into the pasta well (usually comes in a carton, with the consistency of smooth tinned tomatoes, like soup! See the photo below)
• A handful of grated cheese

When I got all of the ingredients together, I preheated the oven to 180°C. I placed my three frozen sausages on a baking tray which I covered in foil first, to stop it getting too greasy from the sausages. The sausages took about 30 minutes to cook, so I began preparing the pasta after about 15 minutes.

I poured the pasta into a saucepan and covered it with hot water from the kettle. I then set the pan on the hob at a high heat and sprinkled some salt into the water - salt water boils at a lower temperature so the pasta cooks slightly quicker. Don't add too much though - I did once, and my pasta tasted salty. Not nice, unless you aim for salty pasta.

To test when the pasta is cooked, stick a fork into it to see if it feels soft. If you still can't tell, eat a bit. It might be briefly horrible if it's still a bit hard, but it's the best way to tell!

I cut slits through the middle of each sausage to let
the fat escape

When the sausages were cooked and the pasta was near-enough done, I took the sausages out of the oven. I used a fork and a sharp knife to cut them into rough chunks.

I used a colander to drain the pasta and tipped it back into the saucepan when drained. I then turned the hob down to a low heat, placed the pan back on and poured in about a quarter of the carton of passata onto the pasta. I used a spoon to mix it all together, added the sausage chunks and sweetcorn and mixed them in.

When it was all nicely mixed, I poured the mixture into a glass roasting dish ready to go in the oven (still left on from the sausages).









I made sure the pasta was spread evenly in the dish and sprinkled the grated cheese on top.

The time to leave it in the oven for depends on how melty you want the cheese, and how crispy you want the surface of the pasta to be. I like mine very melty and very crispy and brown, so I put the dish in the oven for about 20 minutes. There is no need to cover the dish with foil because it will melt and crisp up better without it.

After 20 minutes, the pasta was ready to serve! I made enough for 2 portions so I left half to cool and ate it for lunch the next day. Forward planning as a uni student is always good.






Pasta bake is so easy to make and is a great alternative to simple pasta. You could add more vegetables, different meat such as chicken or mince (bolognese pasta bake is amazing!), fish such as tuna or salmon, cheese sauce instead of tomato... the list is endless! Experiment and have fun!