Pasta bake

[rosefox]

Ingredients

Meat version
12 oz Barilla or other corn/rice GF pasta
28 oz crushed tomatoes and your choice of herbs, spices, olive oil, etc. (or 1 to 2 jars ready-made sauce)
10 oz sweet Italian sausage, raw or pre-cooked
8 oz Kite Hill ricotta (or homemade cashew ricotta)
2 Miyoko's Kitchen mozzarellas (or 16 oz shredded vegan mozzarella, but it won't melt quite as well)
Several handfuls of baby spinach or chopped adult spinach

Vegetarian version
16 oz lentil-based GF pasta
28 oz crushed tomatoes and your choice of herbs, spices, olive oil, etc. (or 1 to 2 jars ready-made sauce)
8 oz Kite Hill ricotta (or homemade cashew ricotta)
2 Miyoko's Kitchen mozzarellas (or 16 oz shredded vegan mozzarella, but it won't melt quite as well)
Several handfuls of baby spinach or chopped adult spinach

Equipment

Oven
Stove with two burners
Can opener
Two pots
A pan if you're browning raw sausage; a cutting board and knife if you're chopping up cooked sausage
Wooden spoons
9" x 13" baking dish
Aluminum foil
Rubber or silicone spatula

Directions

0) Mise en place. Gather your ingredients and tools. Preheat oven to 350F. Put water on to boil. Open the can of tomatoes. Chop up cooked sausage; crumble and brown raw sausage. Shred mozzarella. Oil the baking dish, or line it with parchment paper or a silicone pan liner.

1) Cook the pasta and make the sauce. Boil pasta until just a little crunchy (about 2 minutes less than the minimum time recommended on the package). Meanwhile, heat and season tomatoes. When the sauce is ready, mix in the spinach and let it wilt. Then mix in the ricotta and sausage. Bring to a simmer.

2) Make the bake. When pasta is ready, mix it into the sauce. Pour into the baking dish and top with shredded mozzarella. Cover with foil. Bake 15 minutes and remove foil. Use a spatula to spread the mozzarella until the top is uniform. Brown mozzarella under the broiler. Remove from oven, let rest 5 minutes, and serve.