Sausage Pasta Bake with Mozzarella

Ingredients

• 8 good-quality pork sausages
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 280 g jar roasted red peppers, drained and roughly sliced
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 0.5 tsp chilli flakes
• 700 g passata
• 150 ml water
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 400 g penne
• 2 x 125g balls mozzarella, torn into rough pieces
• 40 g parmesan, finely grated
• fresh basil leaves, to serve
• Garlic bread, to serve
• Green salad, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C fan. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and salt it generously — it should taste like the sea. This is your only chance to season the pasta itself. Cook the penne for 2 minutes less than the packet says — it'll finish cooking in the oven and you don't want mush. Drain and toss with a drizzle of olive oil so it doesn't clag together.
2. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large ovenproof casserole or deep oven-safe frying pan over a medium-high heat. Squeeze the sausage meat from the skins straight into the pan in rough, walnut-sized chunks and season with salt and pepper. Work in two batches if your pan is on the smaller side — crowd it and the meat steams in its own water instead of browning. Fry for 6–8 minutes, breaking the meat up as it goes, until you have deep golden caramelised edges and properly stuck bits on the base of the pan. That fond is flavour. Lift the sausage out and set aside.
3. Add the remaining olive oil and the onion to the pan. Cook over a medium heat for about 6 minutes, scraping the sausage fond up as the onions release their water, until soft and catching gold at the edges.
4. Stir in the garlic, oregano, smoked paprika, and chilli flakes if you're using them. Cook for 30–60 seconds, just until the garlic is fragrant and the spices smell toasted rather than dusty — this is where smoked paprika wakes up. Don't push past a minute: burnt garlic turns the whole bake bitter.
5. Pour in the passata along with the 150ml of water and the rinsed lentils. The water matters — passata on its own reduces to something tinny, and the lentils need liquid to swell into. Add the roasted peppers and the sugar, stir well, and bring to a gentle simmer. Season generously with salt and black pepper and cook for 12–15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the lentils have collapsed completely and the sauce is thick, glossy, and a deep brick red. Splash in more water if it tightens too far.
6. Taste the sauce and adjust — more salt, more pepper, a touch more sugar if the tomatoes still bite. Adjust now, not at the table. Return the sausage and any resting juices to the pan, then tip in the drained penne and fold everything through so every piece is coated in that deep red sauce.
7. Scatter the torn mozzarella evenly over the top and shower with the parmesan. Bake for 20 minutes until the cheese is bubbling, molten, and gold with a few blistered, almost-burnt patches — those dark spots are the best bit.
8. Rest the bake for 5 minutes out of the oven so the sauce settles and the cheese stops sliding. Bring it to the table whole, scatter the basil leaves over the blistered crust, and serve with garlic bread and a sharp green salad alongside.