Pepperoni Rotini

My quick fix rotini pasta bake uses the fattiness, and crispiness of chicken sausage and the simplest of Marinara sauces. Ingredients are eyeballed for simplicity, so go crazy!

Altogether I boiled up (al dente) some rotini and penne, about 3 to 4 cups with a tablespoon of canola oil to avoid sticking. The chickpea rotini and red lentil penne are from Giant's organic section. 

These are my simpleton marinara ingredients. Giant's Italian Style Crushed Tomatoes are a lifeline for my Italiano cookery. Just simmer away until you get the delicious tomato goodness reach a cooked level. That would be less tart, more sweeter, pizza sauce like.

Add mushrooms. Of course, I used canned ones for speedy cooking. You can go ahead get the fresh ones. They would take a while to soften. 

To add some meaty depth to the sauce, I used powdered chicken stock. Use as much as you want, taking care of managing the salt content. My brand, Knorr, has salt. The powdered version keeps the cooking time minimal.

K&N Deline chicken frankfurters have got to be the best sausages in Desi land! K&N is a Pakistani frozen meat products brand available at Pakistani stores. I happened to grab some of these packs for the upcoming spring and summer BBQs and whoa! What a delicious surprise. They are not the jab of super salty that sausages typically are. They do not have the super slimy consistency which sometimes grosses out kids and older adults. Infact, these become crispy and smoky when fried up! The salt is just right! --- Bottom line --- Fry them up as many as you want and chop them into pepperoni style pieces. Reserve the oil you use to fry these. It will be the perfect drizzle!

Next step is layering the pasta and getting ready to bake it. Layers go as follows: Sauce, pasta, black pepper sprinkled, pepperoni, flavored oil from the chicken sausage frying, shredded cheeses of your choice, and repeat!

Set it in the oven to bake at 390 F for a good 10 minutes. Watch the cheese melt! And then, take it out of the oven to cool off before you dig in! 

The nieces loved this quick fix Pepperoni Rotini, and I am sure this will be an often made treat around the Bubster Club. They love pasta and I keep experimenting with new types to keep them happy!