Italian Pasta Bake

Today I made "Italian Pasta Bake" from Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine. I didn't follow the recipe exactly. First, I cut the recipe in half but still required two loaves of bread to have enough for the top and bottom layers. I used a 13 by 9 cake pan rather than a spring form pan. I also added tons of minced garlic to the onion when it was sauteing. I left out the peas, and added some red pepper flakes. I also skipped the part about reserving the 1 cup of sauce, as I felt I really needed to use all the sauce mixture in the casserole so it wasn't too dry. Instead of dotting the top with the remaining butter, I melted the butter and added some minced garlic, then brushed that on the top bread slices. Then I sprinkled with parmesan. I did have to cover with foil near the end so it didn't brown too much. After I put it in the oven I made a quick batch of some sauce by sauteing some minced garlic in butter, added a small can of tomato sauce and almost the same amount in cream, dash red pepper flakes, and let it simmer a little bit. The casserole was really good, especially with some of the sauce I made poured on top.

Now, there are some things I would do differently next time. First I would probably just use some of my own spaghetti sauce with a little cream added instead of using canned tomatoes. I would shred the mozzarella instead of cube it because it would be distributed more evenly throughout the casserole. I would consider adding some cooked ground italian sausage as well or maybe even diced pepperoni. And I might sprinkle the top with mozzarella right near the end of baking. I think a different type of pasta such as shells would be very good in this as well. Overall this was really good and I plan to make again incorporating the changes I've just mentioned.