Italian Sausage Ricotta Pesto Pie Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Remove pie crust from the freezer.
• Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage. Cook, breaking up the sausage, until juices are released, about 3 minutes. Add red onion, red bell pepper, and garlic; cook and stir until sausage is browned and crumbly, about 5 minutes more. Drain and discard grease.
• Combine ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, pesto, Romano cheese, lime juice, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and lemon pepper in a small bowl. Spread over the pie crust. Sprinkle the sausage mixture over the cheese mixture. Arrange zucchini and walnuts on top. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.
• Bake in the preheated oven until crust is browned, about 30 minutes.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 425 degrees. Heat oil in a 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high. Crumble sausage into skillet, using a spoon to break it into small pieces. Cook until starting to brown, stirring occasionally, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic, oregano, fennel seeds and red-pepper flakes (if using), and cook another 1 to 2 minutes.
• Stir in whole tomatoes and their juice, using a spoon to break them up. Add crushed tomatoes, bay leaves and 2 teaspoons salt, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes to thicken slightly.
• Stir in pasta and 1 cup water and return to a simmer. Continue to simmer for 2 minutes, stirring frequently to make sure pasta doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat, pluck out the bay leaves, and fold in about a third of the mozzarella.
• Top pasta with remaining mozzarella and dollops of ricotta. Sprinkle with Parmesan, then transfer to oven. Bake until pasta is tender when poked with a fork, and cheese is bubbly and lightly golden, 18 to 22 minutes. (If you'd like a more deeply browned topping, run the pan under the broiler for 1 or 2 minutes.) Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving. Top with basil, plenty of black pepper, and more red-pepper flakes, if you like.

Steps:

• To make filling-.
• In a large pan, brown sausage meat until no longer pink. Place in colander and rinse with water to remove excess fat. Drain well and cool.
• In a large bowl, mix ricotta and eggs until well blended. Add grated cheese, mozzarella and parsley. Add cooled sausage meat. Mix well and set aside while making crust.
• To make crust-.
• Mix flour, margarine and 8 eggs until dough is formed. Knead a few minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Divide dough into four pieces. Roll out each piece large enough to fit a 10" pie plate. Fill pie shells with sausage filling and cover with top crust. Seal top and bottom crust with beaten egg; pinch and seal crust. Brush top of pies with beaten egg and bake at 350F for 50 minutes. Pie should be deep golden brown.
• This pie tastes best served at room temperature or chilled. (Do not re-heat in microwave, pie becomes watery).

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Heat oil in a large saute pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onions for a few minutes or until translucent, then throw in the peppers, garlic, salt, italian seasoning and optional cayenne. Saute for 6-7 minutes or until the peppers are soft. Remove veggies from the pan with a slotted spoon, leaving behind as much oil as possible.
• Remove the sausage from it's casings and pull apart with your fingers. Throw into the pan and brown, breaking apart with a wooden spoon. When browned, drain the grease from the pan and add the veggies back in, along with the tomato paste. Stir to combine. Add half of the mozarella and stir again.
• Pour the mixture into a large oven-proof skillet or pie pan. Top with the remaining mozarella.
• Unroll the crescent dough and separate into triangles. Arrange in a spiral with the points of the dough towards the center, overlapping slightly to cover the sausage mixture completely. Press the dough to the edges of the pie pan to seal.
• Bake for 12 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13-inch casserole dish with cooking spray.
• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook rigatoni in the boiling water, stirring occasionally, for about 9 minutes (pasta will not be fully cooked.) Drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking water. Set aside.
• While pasta is cooking, place sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat; cook and stir until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove sausage to a paper towel-lined plate and leave grease in the pan.
• Add oil to the skillet and saute for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minutes. Add kale, nutmeg, pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Deglaze the pan with white wine and cook until kale is soft, 5 to 10 more minutes.
• Return sausage back to the pan. Add ricotta, pesto, and 6 ounces mozzarella cheese. Add reserved pasta and cooking water. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed. Pour into the prepared casserole dish and sprinkle remaining mozzarella over top. Cover with foil.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.