Italian Night: Baked Penne Pasta

Italian Night!  Saturday night at the campground we served up Baked Penne Pasta and Focaccia (post forth coming).

We really enjoyed this pasta recipe- it was simple, but still seemed a bit elegant at the campground!  It went perfectly with the Focaccia bread that we made that night as well.  Nobody went hungry, that's for sure!

Baked Penne Pasta
12" Deep Dutch Oven
20 coals on top, 16 on bottom

1 lb. ground meat (we used venison, but beef, turkey, or chicken would work well too)
1 large onion, chopped
1 lb. penne pasta
2 jars spaghetti sauce of your choosing
12 slices provolone cheese
1 1/2 cups sour cream
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Spray the inside of the Dutch oven with cooking spray.

Brown the meat and onion together (since we used venison, which is very lean, we added 2 tbsp olive oil to the pan). Stir in the spaghetti sauce.  Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling water as directed on the package.

Drain the pasta once it is cooked and begin assembling the casserole in the following manner: Begin 2/3 cup sauce on the bottom of the pan, then 1/2 of the penne pasta, then 6 slices of provolone, 1/2 of the sour cream, 1/2 of the remaining spaghetti sauce mixture, and 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese.  Layer again with the remaining pasta, provolone, sour cream, spaghetti sauce mixture, and mozzarella cheese.  Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese.  Bake with the above noted number of coals for 40 minutes, periodically rotating the base of the DO and the lid of the DO.  We ended up cracking the lid for the last 10 minutes or so to allow excess moisture/steam to escape.