Spicy Organic Sausage and Mozzarella Baked Spaghetti

Recently on a whim I decided to make a baked spaghetti dish for supper with my dad, using odds n ends up from the fridge, it worked so well – with the spaghetti providing a nice change to usual fusilli or penne that I tend to use in pasta bake and when Sainsbury’s got in touch about creating something with one of their organic hero ingredients I decided to try out their Organic pork sausages in another version of it. To be honest I couldn’t wait to try it again as we enjoyed it so much the first time around and was more than willing to try out an organic version!

Overall I was really impressed with the ingredients – I buy a small amount of organic food, in an ideal world I would probably buy more but it just doesn’t work in our household budget but I managed to make this from mostly organic ingredients for a total of £6.55 to serve 4 comfortably, which I am very happy with! I did however add a bag of salad and made some garlic bread so upped the cost slightly, though that did cover meals for the following day too so was still affordable.

One of my favourite discoveries were the sausages, they were so delicious! Meaty, no gristle or strange goo in the grill tray and a lovely porky flavour. Definitely something affordable at £3 for 6 and when stretched out into a pasta bake it was more than enough for us! The mozzarella too was really tasty, I adore cheese anyway and liked the delicate, milky flavour though would add bigger chunks next time – I think I was too mean chopping it too small it got a little lost in the bed of spaghetti! We all loved the wholewheat spaghetti too, I have been trying to switch to more wholemeal and brown foods to boost nutrition and it worked perfectly in the bake, adding a nice nuttiness to the flavour.

I have also found a novel way to measure spaghetti - when I normally cook midweek I rarely weigh anything but for the sake of my readers I measured it out - and spaghetti doesn't quite fit anything other than the packet uncooked - my teapot worked a treat!

Chilli wise – I was not brave enough to add the whole one but they did turn out milder than expected – its best to add half, taste then decide! I was wary after a recent Szechuan incident hence my caution!!

Serves 4

Easy

6 SO Organic Sainsbury’s Pork sausages

700g jar SO Organic Sainsbury’s Passatta

125g SO Organic Sainsbury’s Mozzarella, roughly chopped

300g SO Organic Sainsbury’s wholewheat spaghetti

1 large SO Organic Sainsbury’s Onion

1/2 – 1 red chilli – to taste

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp olive oil

S&P

Fresh basil leaves if you have some, not essential

Pre-heat the oven – mine is on the blink thermometer wise but about 190o.

Grill the sausages as per packet instruction’s, slice each sausage into 5-6 pieces. Boil the spaghetti until al dente, and drain well.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a large sauté pan, soften the onion until lightly golden, stir in the chilli and sugar, add the red wine vinegar and burn off the alcohol for about a minute and then stir through the passatta, season with salt and pepper, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

To assemble, stir the cooked sausage pieces into the sauce and add the drained spaghetti and toss to fully mix the sauce. Spoon a layer into a deep baking dish – mine is roughly a4 sized, and sprinkle over a little mozzarella, repeat with the final layer being the remaining mozzarella and some shredded basil leaves to garnish. Bake for 25-30 minutes on the top shelf or until the top is starting to lightly crispen.

Many thanks to Sainsbury’s who provided vouchers to cover the cost of the ingredients and towards my time developing the recipe.