Pasta Baked With Olives, Vegetables and Mozzarella

Submitted by P48422

"Simple, quick baked pasta dish. You can make it ahead, store in the fridge, then just place in the oven when you are ready for dinner. Make sure you extend the baking time if you do this by about 15 minutes."

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 2-4

ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1⁄2 lb pasta, shapes (doesn't matter what shape you use)
• 1 cup kalamata olive, peeled and sliced
• 3 firm ripe tomatoes, peeled and diced (or canned tomatoes)
• 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese or 1 cup romano cheese
• 1⁄2 lb whole milk mozzarella cheese or 1/2 lb provolone cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Lightly grease a shallow baking dish with olive oil.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, add the zucchini and cook over med-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini begin to brown; season with salt and peper.
4. Set aside to cool.
5. Cook the pasta al dente.
6. Drain, rinse with cold water, drain again, then toss with the zucchini.
7. Add the olives, tomatoes and half the cheeses to the pasta.
8. Toss well and pour into the baking dish.
9. Spread the remaining mozzarella on top, reserving the rest of the parmesan for garnish.
10. Bake the pasta until the cheese is melted and the pasta is heated through (about 15-20 minutes).
11. Serve with the remaining cheese.

Reviews

[Lulu B]

Going to a pot luck tonight, so I ventured down your list, saw this and remembered that I have one of those huge jars of mixed olives and peppers from Costco, I mean huge, still hogging refrigerator space. So I multiplied the recipe made one for the home front which we have just tasted, surely that is not cheating??? so 1/2 the jar went for the kalamata olives(there are some other varieties in the jar but I tried to stay fairly conventional for once) and I had some good mozzarella from Pikes market and bought some bow ties, just because this seemed like a dress up dinner. EXCELLENT. It is on the list now, the good one. Thanks again, this is fun. LuluB

 

[yousry007]

Excellent dish and i will make it again for sure. thanks

 

[duonyte]

This really did not work for us. I measured out 8 oz of dry pasta by weight, and ended up with enough pasta to fill a 2 1/2 qt. baking dish - more like 6 to 8 servings. There really did not seem to be enough cheese - I guess I was expecting more of a sauce effect, and had instead pasta with some daubs of cheese. I liked all the individual ingredients, but as a dish this just did not appeal to us. Sorry.