Smoked Sausage and Peppers Baked Rigatoni

This is super good when you're really craving Italian, and I was shocked at how low-cal it ended up being. :)

The recipe ends up making one BIG casserole, or two small ones....for the instructions below, I'm gonna go with the big one to simplify things. :)

Ingredients:

16 oz rigatoni pasta (I used Barilla because it was the lowest calories of all the pastas)

8 oz sliced mushrooms

1 cup thinly sliced onion

1.5 cup green peppers, sliced

14 oz turkey smoked sausage (I used Hillshire Farm)

3 cans - diced tomatoes (I used Hunt's no salt added, with basil, oregano, & garlic)

1 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt substitute

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400.

2) Slice sausage and brown in skillet, then set aside.

3) In sausage drippings, cook peppers, onions, and mushrooms until they are tender.

4) Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package and drain, but reserve 1/2 cup cooking water. Return pasta and reserved cooking water to the pot. Add sausage, peppers, onions, mushrooms, and stir in the tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

5) Pour mixture into a casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray, and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

6) Bake for 25 minutes and let stand for 10 minutes.

Click for a larger view of the yummi-ness!

Makes 8 pretty large servings. Each serving:
Calories - 384
Protein - 20
Fiber - 6
Carbs - 58

P.S. If this gets "dry" in leftover form, add 2 tbsp sour cream (to each serving), mix well, and microwave for your own pasta and vodka sauce! :)