Scicilian Sausage Pasta Bake

Jo says "its scrummy but not really on a hot summer's day", although we can't think why not!

Serves: 3-4

Preparation and cooking time: 45 mins

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You Will Need:-

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• Sprinkle of dried garlic (or 2 crushed fresh garlic cloves)
• Sprinkle of dried basil and oregano (or a handful if using the chopped fresh herbs)
• 6 Debbie and Andrew sausages, chopped into roughly 1 inch pieces, I used the Scicilian sausages
• 1 handful mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• Dash of worcester sauce
• 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
• Half a tube of tomato puree
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 25g butter
• 25g plain flour
• 1 pint cold milk
• 500g pack fresh spinach leaves
• 250g pasta shapes (fresh or dried)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to approx 180 - 200 degrees C.

Half-fill a large pan you with boiling salted water, and cook the pasta shapes as directed on the packet. When ready, remove from the heat.

In the meantime, heat a large pan and add the olive oil, onion, garlic, & herbs. Fry for approx. 4 minutes until the onion starts to turn golden.

Add the sausage pieces and cook for approx. 8 minutes until they start to turn golden, turning regularly.

Whilst the sausages are cooking, put the spinach leaves into a large microwavable bowl with 2 tablespoons of cold water. Cover and cook on high power for 2 minutes. Leave until needed later.

Add the mushrooms to the sausage mixture. Cook for 2 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, worcester sauce, tomato ketchup, tomato puree, stir well and leave to cook on a low heat stirring occasionally.

Put the butter, flour, and milk into a separate pan, and stir continuously over a medium heat with a whisk until it just comes to the boil and turns into a rich white sauce. Turn down the heat to low, and gently cook, still stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.

In a large baking dish I use a lasagne dish, put a layer of the sausage mixture, followed by a layer of spinach, followed by a layer of white sauce. Repeat layers until the ingredients have been used.

Cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

From: Jo Bryan, Cambridgeshire

Enjoy!