Italian Sausage Penne: Gluten Free Goodness |Cooking With Amanda

I think I may have cracked the picky eater code with my son and ground meats. Of course, this is only temporary; he seems to outsmart me frequently! I make a variety of recipes that involve ground meats, but my son immediately rejects them all and acts as though it's a texture issue.

Several years now of trying to get him to try different foods, and we have a couple that he will eat as far as meats go, but ground meat is pretty much out. Then, I made this Italian Sausage Penne and my luck changed!

He saw it on the counter as I was getting plates ready to go for dinner and asked for some on his plate. This is unusual because typically he ends up with one of the few foods he will eat and the rest of us eat what I make.

I put some on his plate, trying not to get my hopes up, and then bite-by-bite he kept eating it, going on and on about how good it was. The only difference in this recipe as opposed to my other penne recipes was the meat. He loves sausage and apparently really loves Italian sausage!

I'm on to something now; I'm going to try using this sausage in a variety of other recipes that involve ground meats too. I am bound and determined to expand his very little array of foods he will try. Next on my list of things to try is this rigatoni with sausage - I'm hoping to have the same kind of luck. How bad is my picky eater? He says salad scares him. Yep, scared of lettuce. Nice!

This recipe is so simple and yet so good; your picky eaters may surprise you! This Italian Sausage Penne is more of a staple around our house and recipes similar to it.

I love that I can quickly make pasta dishes such as this in just a few short minutes and have enough to eat for a couple of days. We can usually eat this for at least 2 days for a family of 4. That gives me a day off from cooking, and I'll take it!

Time to eat! Be sure not to forget dessert: try this Butterfinger Cake too!

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Italian Sausage Penne Recipe

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Ingredients

1 pound italian sausage, ground
16 ounces gluten free penne
1 24 ounce jar marinara sauce
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large skillet, spray it with non-stick spray and brown the sausage.
Place the browned sausage on a paper-lined plate to drain the excess grease and set aside.
While the sausage is browning, boil water in a large stockpot and prepare the pasta as according to the package.
Once the pasta is cooked and drained, return it to the stockpot and add in the sausage.
Pour in the marinara sauce and mix well.
Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray and evenly pour in the pasta mixture.
Top the pasta with mozzarella cheese.
Bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
Serve Warm.