White Sauce Pasta Bake with Italian Turkey Sausage

I'm SO excited because I made this recipe up myself, and it turned out SO well! I wanted a pasta bake, but all I could find were pasta bakes for red sauce. I am a huge fan of white sauce pastas, so I was looking for a white sauce pasta bake. When I couldn't find one, I made my own!

1 lb. Campanelle pasta
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage (taken out of its casing)
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
3 diced bell peppers of various colors
1 medium, diced yellow onion
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 tsp. salt
cracked pepper to taste
1 Tbs. Italian seasoning
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese - grated
8 oz. mozzarella cheese - shredded

Cook pasta in salted, boiling water for 10-12 minutes. Drain pasta, rinse with cold water, transfer to large bowl and set aside. On top of cold pasta, pour 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, but don't mix yet.
Cook sausage over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and burning. Break up the large pieces of sausage and brown until no longer pink. Transfer sausage to a bowl, leaving behind the fat in the skillet.
Add olive oil to the already existing fat in the skillet. Saute garlic, onion, peppers, and mushrooms ~ 5-7 minutes until tender. Add sausage, cream, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Boil over medium-high heat until thickened, ~ 5-6 minutes.
Pour over pasta, Parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese. Gently blend until everything is well-coated. Gently fold into a casserole dish, cover with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

This makes a LOT of pasta! It will feed eight people, EASY. It's so creamy and good and makes a great left-over dish! YUM!

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Curried Christmas Cranberries

Spice up this holiday favorite with a fancy twist. Instead of serving the same old cylinder slab of cranberry blob with your turkey and dressing, try serving this sweet and spicy version to your family. It's easy, and it'll make your family think you had your side dishes catered!

1 1/2 cups sugar
3 Tbs. honey
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup port wine
3/4 cup orange marmalade
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 bag (12 oz.) fresh cranberries

Combine sugar, vinegar, port, marmalade, cinnamon, curry powder, and salt in a large bowl
Add cranberries and mix well so that all the cranberries are nicely coated.
Spray a 2 quart baking dish with cooking spray. Pour in cranberry mixture, cover with foil, and bake at 325 for 50-60 minutes until cranberries are soft. Let stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.

This is a very tart dish, so you may want to add a bit more sugar and/or honey to your liking. You could also add 1/2 cup of raisins if you like to sweeten it up, as well. As always, you can tweak any dish and make it your own! Enjoy your holiday! 

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