How do you wake Lady Gaga up? You Poker Face.

Ba Doom Cha!

Here’s my favorite version of Poker Face.

The end of this next video kills me every time. Lady Pasta. Ha!

“Pa-pa-Pasta, Roma Toe-May-Tah,
Garlic! Ooo-La-La! I’m so delicious!”
“Taaaasty! Taaasty! I won’t tell if your sauce is canned.”

That’s good that our canned (bottled) sauce is a secret in this recipe. Shh! No one need know. Using some bottled tomato vodka sauce makes this one of the easiest pasta dishes to put together.

I doubled the recipe ingredients and made two casseroles. One for the family and one for my daughter to bring to her soccer team’s potluck dinner. It was a hit all around.

Definitely use fresh mozzarella. The ooey-gooeyness of it is so delicious. Its mild flavor works especially well with the vodka sauce.

Baked Vodka Penne with Mozzarella and Basil

Ingredients:

1 pound penne pasta
1 16-ounce jar vodka-flavored tomato sauce
1/2 pounds fresh mozzarella, cubed
1/2 cup loosely packed chopped basil
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400℉.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Stir in the pasta and cook according to the package directions until just done. (I subtract 2 minutes from the suggested cooking time since the pasta will be baked and further softens then.)

3. Drain the pasta well then return it to the pot. Stir in the tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil. Transfer the pasta mixture to a 3 quart baking dish and top with Parmesan.

4. Bake the pasta until the sauce is creamy and bubbly and begins to brown, 23 to 25 minutes.

Serves 6.

Recipe from the ‘What Can I Bring? Cookbook: Make it…Bring it..Eat it!’ By Anne Byrn

Done by F.S. Merriwether, Paparazzi is quite lovely.
F.S. Merriwether-Paparazzi

And why do we love F.S. Merriwether even more? Because he hails from Portland, Oregon.

Check out F.S. Merriwether on his Myspace Page. You can listen to (and download) a bunch of other clever covers by F.S. Merriwether here. I love that he writes about how he went about the recording process of each of the songs. Included is a video of the original song so you can compare. How fun is that?

Cheers!