Italian Spinach & Pasta Bake

Submitted by Realtor by day, Chef by night

"We love this served along side of several different chicken recipes that I make. It's cheesy and delicious. You can turn this into a main dish by doubling the recipe and adding 2 cups of cubed chicken, pork, meatballs, sausage, shrimp or whatever you like directly to it before baking. It's a very flexible dish."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 4-6

ingredients

• 1⁄2 lb bow tie pasta (farfalle)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1⁄2 cup red onion, diced small
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1⁄2 cup pecorino romano cheese
• 1 teaspoon italian seasoning
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 (10 ounce) package chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• paprika

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 3qt baking dish.
2. Boil the water and cook the pasta according to package directions. DO NOT ever add oil to the water! It will make your sauce slide off the pasta later.
3. Meanwhile heat butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the heavy cream, romano cheese, Italian seasoning and garlic powder. Whisk and cook until thickened slightly, about 5 minutes. Add spinach.
5. In a little bowl, mix the ricotta and the egg together and add this and the cooked pasta to the skillet. Toss to mix everything up and spoon into baking dish.
6. Cover with foil and bake 25 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle evenly with mozzarella and then a little paprika to give it a pretty color. Return to oven for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and starting to brown.

Reviews

[breezermom]

Delicious! Used fresh spinach and garlic, halved the recipe, and used pasta spirals......since that was what I had. Also used half and half instead of heavy cream.....seemed to work just fine. Made for PRMR tag. Thanks for sharing!

 

[mama smurf]

What a wonderful dish...so creamy and really so easy. I did cut the recipe in half and I used fresh garlic and fresh spinach and what delicious dish! Served with a salad and rolls. Made for Zaar Alphabet Cookbook tag game.

 

[gailanng]

I am absolutely impressed with the restaurant quality of this dish. May I ask that you slightly lower the height of the table's centerpiece so that the most handsome men could see me flutter my eyelashes? Made for PRMR.

 

[bluemoon downunder]

SO delicious, wonderfully creamily delicious. This is such a fabulous pasta dish I've already made it twice: the first time using oregano, rosemary and sage and the second time with cumin. Loved both. :) I used low-fat ricotta and low-fat cream (as I find the low-fat versions don't compromise the flavour) but regular pecorino romano and mozarella. As a spinach lover, I used a packet of well-squeezed frozen spinach and just had to also add several generous handfuls of baby spinach leaves; as a garlic lover, I used several teaspoons of minced garlic rather than the garlic powder. We enjoyed this immensely with warm crispy ciabatta rolls and sparkling wine. Even on its own, without the rolls and wine, reheated for a take-to-work lunch, it was excellent. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, Realtor by day, Chef by night. I'm going to be making this OFTEN.

 

[Sharon123]

This came out really nice! Rich and such a treat! I used fresh spinach and hlaved the recipe for the two of us. Thanks! Made for Best of 2009 Cookbook tag.