Ricotta Bake
A nice warm tray of pasta, there’s nothing like it. And if you get all the components together you can get your kids in on the action!
There’s nothing like cooking together as a family, even if your kids are little and think they’re “helping” it makes it all the more fun. Especially with a recipe like this where beauty isn’t much of a factor, it’s all about the taste.
This pan pasta is an ideal family meal, prepped together and eaten together.
Ricotta Bake
Ingredients:
1 package penne pasta
5 cups marinara
1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 egg
zest of half a lemon
salt
pepper
Instructions:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9×13 pan by greasing it with melted butter. Set aside.
Step 2: Cook pasta according to the package directions. Drain, do not rinse.
Step 3: In a large bowl, toss the pasta with half the marinara and pour into the prepped pan. Then pour the rest of the sauce on top.
Step 4: Sprinkle the cheese on top of the pasta and sauce.
Step 5: In a medium bowl combine the ricotta, Parmesan, egg and lemon zest. Stir together well, season with salt and pepper.
Step 6: Drop the ricotta by dollops almost like biscuits, on top of the penne.
Step 7: Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes and serve.
I might try this on my boyfriend. I am serious! He can’t cook. I wish his mom had taught him. Sigh.
hi jenn, that looks amazing! and i am also a proponent of child labor!!!!! 🙂
i love ricotta, maybe a little too much, ha ha. but this recipe seems fun, easy and kid friendly.
I love this idea. I need to get my little one doing more in the kitchen… he used to like to cook more than he does now.
And i totally remember my mom giving me the job of grating the cheese, too! …Thank god we have shredded commonly available now 😉
PS I linked to this in the Spotlight on foodwhirl today: http://foodwhirl.com/spotlight/cooking-with-kids-ricotta-bake
First off, I want to say I still buy cheese in blocks. My kids, however, aren’t in love with having to grate it. This recipe sounds great! Will definitely be making it next week. I will also make the kids grate the cheese 🙂
Thanks again Jenn!
Just wanted to post and let you know that I’ve made this twice and it was amazing both times. My second time I basically cut the recipe in half and used the piccolini pasta and I think it came out even better. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes here and I can’t wait to try more of them.