Italian Spinach & Pasta Bake

Realtor by day, Chef by night's Note:

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.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 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.