Na's Pasta

Okay, so Jason & I are obsessed with the TV show "Diner's, Drive-ins & Dives" on the Food Network. And the one time, they featured this tiny little hole-in-the-wall bar called "Nadine's" which is in the South Side - just a couple blocks from me!

So one day back in January, when he had just returned from a trip & we both had the whole frozen-Pittsburgh-weekday off, we went there for lunch. It's SUCH a small place and you actually eat at the bar. But they had the "famous" Na's Pasta...and it was DELISH.

I later googled it and saw they posted the receipe on the website! So I made it for Jason & Gittler over a week ago, the night before Jason left for Chicago for two weeks. I wanted to try and do something COMPLETELY on my own with NO HELP from him & I wouldn't even let him in the kitchen, even tho I did use Gittler to help me pour some of the contents into the baking pan.

Now... this receipe "serves 4-6"... but what they really mean is a small army. This receipe made two big casserole dishes worth of food. It was INSANE how much we had left. It could EASILY have fed 10+ people, especially once you factored in bread/garlic bread/breadsticks etc. Jason even froze one of the casserole dishes' worth of food... we'll see how that turned out in a couple weeks. ha!

But I must warn you... this is a VERY filling/manly meal. Jason & his roomate LOVED it and I really enjoyed it... but its definitely EXTREMELY filling. lol It's a "man's dish" that's for sure.

And I even made Jason run out mid-prep to buy a REALLY large, deep pan, because his were just too small. Though, Im sure you'd be fine if you cut the receipe in half.

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds bulk hot Italian sausage (I only used 1lb)
3 slices (1-inch thick) salami
3 slices (1-inch thick) capicolla
3 tomatoes, diced
1 onion
3 red peppers
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 pounds trio pasta (3 different pastas)
3 cups marinara sauce
Asiago cheese, for garnish
Garlic bread or Italian butter bread, for serving

Directions
Saute hot Italian sausage and drain off all of the fat. Cut the salami and capicolla into small cubes and dice the tomatoes. Chop the onion and peppers. Add sausage, salami, capicolla, tomatoes, onion and red peppers to the saute pan and mix well. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook the pasta in boiling water until al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a large oven-safe dish, add all ingredients together including pasta and marinara sauce and cover. Bake for 30 minutes. (I mixed all of it in J's large pot, because there was just so much I new I couldn't mix it all in the pan)

Plate and top with fresh Asiago cheese. Serve with garlic bread or Italian butter bread.

(Note: I have no idea how long this receipe took from start to finish. I was SO worried about screwing it up and not being able to prove J wrong, that I took my time & was very careful with EVERY step I did. I want to say it took about an hour & a half though, from start to finish.)