Variations on a Theme

I have many variations of tomato-y ground beef/turkey casserole at my culinary disposal. I like such concoctions because I usually always have appropriate ingredients in my pantry, and the preparation requires next-to-no thinking on my part. Here's the one I made tonight:

Preheat oven to 350.

Start a pot of water heating. When it boils, add three cups of dry rigatoni (I prefer Barilla for my pasta, but whatever you like is fine). Cook the pasta until slightly under-done.

While the rigatoni is cooking, brown one pound of ground beef in a skillet. While browning, add a tiny bit of salt, some ground black pepper, and some minced garlic (I keep a ginormous jar of the Christopher Ranch stuff from Costco in the fridge at all times).

Once the meat is browned, add 4 cups prepared tomato sauce. Tonight I just used jarred spaghetti sauce. Heat through.

When pasta is done, drain and put into a casserole dish that has been sprayed with non-stick repellent. Pour the meat sauce onto the pasta in the casserole and stir. Add 1 cup of shredded mozzarella to the casserole and stir well. On top of the pasta mixture sprinkle an additional 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella and 1/4 shredded Parmesan cheese.

Bake 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving (or shoveling, as the case may be). Be sure to have some salad or other form of green veggie so I won't feel guilty that I told you to make something that's not a couscous-and-tofu casserole. DarlingMan's mom stopped by while it was baking and said it smelled good, so there ya go (but she didn't stay to eat any; her loss).