Thursday, August 23, 2012

Cheesy Pasta Bake

We had this pasta dish with my parents yesterday.  I made it for a hearty lunch for them, and it was a success.  This was the portion size, and it was 255 calories/serving.  We all gave it a 9, it was really hearty, flavorful, and just plain satisfying, if not very pretty :).  Here's the recipe, which has lots of estimations, you can play with the spices, etc., yourself.
Cheesy Pasta Bake

6 oz pasta
1 t olive oil
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomato
1/4 c tomato paste
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 c spinach
basil, onion powder, season salt, salt, pepper, red pepper, oregano, all to taste
1 c ricotta cheese (more or less)
1 c grated parmesan cheese
1 c mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease an 8x8 pan.  Boil pasta in salted water until almost al dente (still quite firm).  Heat the olive oil in a large pan, then add in onions and garlic.  Stir and add in some salt.  Cook until tender.  Add in the tomato paste, and cook for a few minutes.  Add in the tomatoes and desired spices and bring to a boil, then simmer for a few minutes.  While the sauce is simmering, mix together all the ricotta, and half the parmesan and mozzarella and some onion powder.  Remove the sauce from the heat, add in the spinach, then mix in the ricotta mixture.  Pour into the prepared baking dish, then top with the rest of the parmesan and mozzarella.  Bake for a while, about 20-30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly and cheese is browning.  Serve.

These are all approximates, make to your specifications.

Tomorrow we're having some hamburgers.

3 comments:

  1. WE were really glad to have a good lunch, especially as 5:30 came and we still had to get to the church by 6:00. We were a few minutes late and our pizza was heartily and very quickly snarfed down. Love mom

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  2. Looks like something I would have liked to eat. Too bad I was gone :(

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  3. We are having this recipe for dinner tomorrow. thanks and love mom

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