Pasta Bake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare macaroni, or other pasta of your choice, according to package instructions.

Add ricotta cheese, egg, salt and pepper to the casserole dish and mix well. You may also add some herbs of your choice to the ricotta mixture. Spread evenly in the bottom of the dish. (I like a lot of black pepper here. That’s sorta my secret to yumminess.)

You can go a couple of way with the sauce. First, you can buy a jar of prepared sauce. You can also get can of seasoned crushed tomatoes and use that with absolutely no dressing up. OR, you can use a large can of plain crushed tomatoes dressed up to your liking. Here’s what I suggest…

Saute some chopped onion and garlic in a large skillet. Deglaze the pan with a little red wine if you have it (totally optional…I just like the way it smells!) Add the can of crushed tomatoes*, season with a little basil, oregano, salt and pepper, and there you are! The sauce shouldn’t take more than 7 minutes. To health it up, add spinach, beet greens, swiss chard (just a little, this is really earthy tasting) to the sauce. Not even picky kids will notice.

Drain the pasta and toss with sauce. Pour over the ricotta mixture in the casserole dish. Cover with mozzeralla (1 to 2 cups as needed to cover all the pasta).

Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

*A note on crushed tomatoes…read the can. Make sure the #1 ingredient is crushed tomatoes. It’s better that way.