Pandemic Cooking Recipe: Sans Wine Co. Christmas Eve Pasta Casserole

(Images and recipe provided)

Owners and husband/wife duo, Gina & Jake of Sans Wine Co., the organic canned wine company based in Napa Valley, have paired a very special family recipe with their first ever bottled wine - Carignan. 
This recipe is for Grandma Marlene’s Christmas Eve Pasta Casserole. Marlene (Spadafore) Schober was Gina’s Grandma and Christmas Eve was HER holiday - she looked forward all year long to Christmas Eve.
​Her ancestry is Southern Italian and this is a great family recipe to prepare for the holidays. Enjoy!

---

Ingredients: 
1 lb. penne pasta | 2 lbs. Italian sausage, ground, removed from casing (1 lb mild & 1 lb hot) 
1 15 oz.can tomato sauce* | 1 15 oz.can diced tomatoes* | 1 6 oz.can tomato paste * 
1 yellow onion, chopped | A few garlic cloves, minced 
¼-½ cup Sans Wine Co. Carignan | 1 lb. shredded mozzarella (16 oz pack) 
EVOO | Spices-salt & pepper, dried oregano (pinch - eyeball it) | Casserole Dish 

Cooking Instructions: 

• Add EVOO to large soup pot, and cook down the sausage - break up the meat while itcooks. Cook until browned. Add chopped onion and garlic and cook until translucent. 
• Add Sans Wine Co. Carignan to deglaze. Cook down for a few minutes. Stir in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and tomato paste, and about ¼ cup water. Add yoursalt & pepper, dried oregano. 
• Cook sauce down for about 30 minutes. 
• Meanwhile,cook penne pasta until “al dente” - meaning don’t overcook your pasta! There are “al dente” cooking instructions on your pasta box! Strain and add to a bowl, drizzle with some EVOO so that the pasta doesn’t stick together. 
• In your casserole dish, add a layer of sauce, layer of pasta, layer of cheese. Repeat until you’ve used up all of your sauce, pasta and mozzarella, finishing with mozz on top/last layer. Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
• Cover with foil (make sure the inside of the foiled is sprayed so that the cheese doesn’t stick) and poke holes to let heat escape. Bake for 30 minutes then remove the foil and bake another 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees to get cheese bubbly. 
• *You can use tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and paste with Italian herbs. Double or triple the sauce recipe depending on how many you are cooking for.
• Pairing: Sans Wine Co. Carignan. Buon appetito!

---