Monday, March 2, 2009

Monday Menu


How about something yummy and hearty for today? This is a made-up-as-I-went dish that turned out great. Everyone liked it and it made great left-overs. The noodle choice was made simply because I had no lasagna noodles but wanted to make lasagna. Now I probably will do it on purpose, because it's more of a "dump and layer" instead of being careful with lasagna noodles. Hey, I'll take any shortcut I can get away with! And, oh dear, I just realized I did not jot down the container sizes of the ingredients. I'll try to be descriptive, I'm sure you'll follow. Enjoy...
Rigatoni Lasagna

1 box rigatoni pasta (the standard sized Barilla box, or any brand)
1 lb. ground beef (or turkey)
1 jar (28 oz.) your favorite pasta sauce (I like Prego traditional)
1 container ricotta cheese (8 oz?? whatever that common size is you see in the store!)
1 egg
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 cups (or more to taste) shredded mozzarella, or sliced mozzarella would work just fine

Cook pasta according to box directions. Brown meat, drain and add the jar of pasta sauce. Add 1/4 cup water to jar, tighten lid and shake well. Pour into meat/sauce combo. Combine ricotta cheese, egg and Parmesan cheese. Now, start layering...

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray. Add a small amount of sauce to bottom of dish. Layer 1/2 pasta, 1/2 ricotta cheese mixture, 1/2 sauce and 1/2 mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers, ending with mozzarella cheese. It would also be great with some spinach...one box of frozen spinach, thawed and drained well could be mixed in with the ricotta cheese. Yum. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly and cheese is happily melted.

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