Things You'll Need:
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Step 1
If you don't already have the ingredients on hand, make a trip to the store to purchase them. Choose five different types of pasta noodles like bow ties, shells, rigatoni, wheels, and spirals. They give the dish differing consistencies and tastes as well as visual appeal.
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Step 2
Make your family's favorite pasta sauce or purchase a pre-made version from the grocery store from Hunts, Ragu, Newman's Own, or Prego. Make certain your sauce choice includes sweet peppers, onions, garlic, and mushrooms as a minimum. If it does not, plan on adding the extra ingredients.
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Step 3
If the pasta sauce you have chosen does not include sweet peppers, onions, garlic, and mushrooms, add as many of those to the sauce as you and your family might like. Pre-prepare the additional ingredients by softening them in butter before adding them to the pasta sauce. However, be sure to drain off any excess butter before hand.
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Step 4
Heat the sauce throughout, adding the ingredients in Step 3 above as well as any additional spices that you might want such as Italian seasoning, basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, or any others of your choice. Once seasoned as you like it and heated throughout, set the pasta sauce aside.
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Step 5
In a large Dutch Oven, bring hot water to a boil. Add in two to three tablespoons of olive oil and one teaspoon of salt.
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Step 6
Once the pasta comes to a rolling boil, add in each type of pasta. Begin with the bow tie and wheel pasta. After two minutes, add the shells, rigatoni, and spirals. Bring the water back to a boil, stirring constantly until that is achieved. Then reduce the heat slightly so that the water will not boil over.
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Step 7
Once the pasta is cooked to your desired taste, drain it thoroughly before beginning to put the pasta and sauce together.
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Step 8
In individual casserole dishes, add a layer of pasta, making certain to get some of each type of noodle. Top the noodles with enough pasta sauce to cover the noodles. Continue layering until the dish is at least three-quarters of the way full (usually two or three layers).
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Step 9
Top the noodles and sauce with white cheeses of your choice such as mozarella, munster, montery jack and/or swiss.
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Step 10
In the microwave or oven insert the pasta dishes and allow everything to heat through just long enough to melt the cheese on top and, if you want, give it a slightly golden brown color to the top of the cheese. This will take about two to three minutes by microwave or seven to ten minutes in a 425 degree oven.
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Step 11
Sprinkle a small amount of paprika on top of the cheese and garnish with parsley.
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Step 12
Serve the pasta with a traditional soup spoon.
