Italian Sausage Puttanesca Pasta Casserole

Cook about 2/3 of a pound of organic whole-wheat penne.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Meanwhile, chop and saute an onion, some garlic, some green pepper if you got it. Add about half a pound of delicious hot Italian sausage made from a happy and delicious pig. (I used to find pork products so boring and would never buy pork in the store. Now that I think about it, I also used to find supermarket beef and chicken boring too. The only interesting meat for me was lamb -- which is often grass-fed, coincidentally perhaps. Anyway, this fresh, free-range, organically-grown, real-food-fed pork is a COMPLETELY different animal, with a completely different taste, from the Smithfield special.) Brown and break apart the sausage.

Add a 28-oz can of diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup chopped olives, 2 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley, and a few mashed anchovies. Simmer for a bit but don't boil it. If your tomatoes were juicy, as mine were, I highly recommend pouring off the watery portion into a separate shallow pan and boiling it down into a delicious concentrated paste, which you can then return to the main event. This really didn't take long.

When the pasta's done cooking, drain and toss with the sauce. Put the mixture in a casserole dish and sprinkle with about half a cup of grated parmesan. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and some of the pasta on top is nice and chewy. Add a veggie or salad and serve.