Recipe of the Week!

Pasta Bake

Back in the day, circa 2003, when I was living the dream, there use to be this pasta sauce on the market called "Pasta Bake." Basically all you had to do was take an uncooked box of pasta, a jar of this sauce, and then refill the same jar with water and dump it in a pan together and bake it til edible. I might have been living the dream, but that grossness I just described (which was delicious at the time) is not so dreamy. That being said, I would take my college lifestyle sophomore year in good old 208 Carlton Apartments any day. My roommate Jordan and I has some very interesting recipes that were go to and Pasta Bake was a winner. I guess this is my grown up version.

This pasta is filled with eggplant, portobello mushrooms, and spinach. I also made the sauce. To start I put the chopped veggies in a skillet and cooked them until soft. I also cooked and drained one box of pasta (in the picture above it's the end of one box and the beginning of another thats why there's 2 shapes). I put a few spoonfuls of ricotta in the cooked pasta and stirred it together and then added the sauce (recipe below), veggies, and pasta together and combined them. After that I just sprinkled with some shredded mozzarella and baked it for 20 minutes. Obviously you can use jar sauce instead of making it, and use any veggies or meat you would like. 

Simple Marinara Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes

olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1tbsp. red pepper flakes

1tbsp. oregano

1/2 cup torn basil leaves

Directions:

In a sauce pan heat olive oil (covering bottom of pan), garlic, and pepper flakes until garlic is golden. Add tomatoes, half cup of water, and oregano and bring to a boil. Turn to low and simmer adding basil and salt and peper to taste.