Baked Rigatoni With Spinach, Ricotta, and Fontina

Submitted by lazyme

"I found this in an old issue of Food and Wine. It sounds quick and good. Here's how the magazine describes it. A quick take on spinach and ricotta cannelloni, this baked pasta is fast because there's nothing to stuff. The filling is simply tossed with cooked rigatoni that's then topped with fontina and baked to a golden brown."

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1 lb rigatoni pasta
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed
• 2 cups ricotta cheese (about 1 pound)
• 5 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated
• 1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg, grated
• 3⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 6 ounces Fontina cheese, grated (about 1 1/2 cups)

directions

1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Oil a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
3. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the rigatoni until almost done, about 12 minutes.
4. Drain.
5. Put the pasta in the prepared baking dish and toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil.
6. Meanwhile, squeeze as much of the water as possible from the spinach.
7. Put the spinach in a food processor and puree with the ricotta, 3 tablespoons of the Parmesan, the nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
8. Stir in half the fontina.
9. Stir the spinach mixture into the pasta.
10. Top with the remaining fontina and Parmesan.
11. Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over the top.
12. Bake the pasta until the top is golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
13. VARIATION:.
14. You can substitute another chunky pasta, such as penne rigate, penne, ziti, or fusilli. Boil all of these one or two minutes less.

Reviews

[Sydney Mike]

Followed the ingredients & directions right on down, but didn't squeeze out all the moisture from the spinach (The tip from another reviewer that the resulting puree was a bit too thick led me in that direction!), & the resulting puree came out just fine! Really enjoyed the blend of cheeses in this dish! Thanks for sharing the recipe! [Made & reviewed while touring Italy on Zaar's World Tour 4]

 

[maryp]

Followed directions and ingredient list exactly. This is incredibly bland and dry, not nearly worthy the effort. My entire family agreed. The comments already posted about adding tomato sauce or extra milk also would help if you are going to try it as that could at least help with the dryness.

 

[MarraMamba]

The flavors of this were superb!!! It was easy and quick to make, and the cheeses worked so well in it. One thing i will do next time, is before i put the last cheeses on, i will swirl some tomatoe sauce in it just to give it a litle moisture and since bechamel works well with canneloni, when a small amount of tomato sauce is added i think it will be a nice addition.. made for zwt4

 

[*Parsley*]

This very green pasta dish has an excellent mild flavor. I used low-fat ricotta and it worked well. The nutmeg flavor combines very well with the ricotta; don't leave it out! As I pureed the spinach and ricotta, it seemed way to thick and "pasty." I added some milk to help thin it out and I'm very glad I did. I may even use more milk (or cream!) next time. Thanx for sharing this great dish.

 

[Redsie]

This was a wonderful comfort dish!! Did use some fresh spinach instead of frozen that I chopped raw and added to the ricotta cheese (light). It makes green pasta - but it is DELISH!! Thanks lazyme! :)