Pasta Bake

 The first installment of "Ugly Pics, Delicious Recipes" is here.  Wait, what?  Yes, I am a terrible stager of foods.  They are delicious, I promise.  If I have edits to recipes, I'll write them in.  

Pasta Bake - No Fancy Name

• Large Pasta Shells (you will see I used lasagna noodles, that's what I had!)
• Ricotta Cheese - 1 large container
• Italian Cheese Mix - one bag is good, 8 oz
• Egg, 1 of them
• Italian Seasonings (to taste)
• Garlic Powder (to taste)
• Italian Sausage - 1 lb
• Zucchini, chopped up into bite sized pieces, I used two small ones
• Pasta Sauce, my fav is Cascones
• Mozzarella Cheese, 8 oz bag

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cook the pasta shells according to package directions (but does anyone actually pay attention to the package directions, we know how to cook pasta, right?!)
3. Mix ricotta, egg, Italian cheeses, Italian seasonings and garlic powder in a bowl.  Make sure everything is evenly spread throughout the mix.
4. Once mixed, stuff it in the shells and place in a baking dish.
5. Cook the Italian Sausage in a larger sauce pan
6. While it's cooking in that pan (yes, you still pay attention to it and stir occasionally), chop the zucchini into bite sized pieces
7. Once sausage is thoroughly cooked, add the sauce to the pan.  If you want to season it more, you can do so here.
8. Simmer for about 5-10 minutes.
9. Add zucchini to the sauce and pour the sauce mixture to the top of the pasta in the baking dish.
10. Put mozzarella cheese on the top.  
11. Cover the top with foil
12. Bake 35 minutes with the foil on top.
13. Remove the foil for the last 5-10 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

Serve with garlic bread. And don't forget to add cheese to the garlic bread!

P.S.  If you are looking at this, I'm still playing around with the format and backgrounds, so excuse the mess if it's there.  It will look better soon.  :)