OK, I made this last week for dinner with the family for January birthdays and was asked for the recipe today. I didn't have a recipe, I just kind of made it out of my head. I used my homemade meatball recipe found in this blog. Normally, my meatballs are slightly smaller than the tennis ball. But for the rigatoni I made them about the size of large gumballs.
I also took mild Italian sausage from the Poot, sliced it into chunks again about the size of large gumballs and put them in a baking dish with marinara sauce and cooked them in the oven at 300 degrees for about 3 hours.
I did all of this the week before the party and froze the meatballs and the sausage mixture.
The day of the party I made 3lbs of rigatoni according to package directions. I also put together some crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce in two Dutch ovens; one for the meatballs and one for the sausage. I added some sugar to cut the acid, some Italian seasoning, some basil, garlic powder and onion powder. Simmer until the noodles are ready to work with.
Once the pasta was cooked and drained I pulled out 3 baking dishes. I then layered, sauce, pasta, meat and then shredded cheese until the pan was filled. I made one pan with just meatballs, one with just sausage and one mixed. Kraft has an Italian blend of shredded cheese which is what I used and I thought it gave it nice flavor. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes until bubbly and cheese is starting to brown.
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