feel food club

Pasta Bake

A Family Favorite Pesto & Ricotta Pasta Bake

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Pesto Pasta is a next level dish itself. But mixed with some ricotta and mozzarella cheese and baked until both has molten and the pasta has turned crispy on the top, it is even better. Plus, it really is super super easy to make, a family favorit and healthy(ish)! 

What is special about this dish?

It is not pesto pasta, but similar, just taken next level. Maybe you could say that it is kind of a crossover of pesto pasta and lasagne. The ricotta-egg mixture makes kt all really creamy and adds a nice texture to it, while the mozarella adds the cheesy goodness. So yep, like pesto pasta just with more textures and flavours.

Is this dish healthy?

It definitely is healthyish. And it is green – so it‘s got to be healthy right? Pesto actually is pretty dense in nutrients. There are healthy, unsaturated fats from the olive oil and pine nuts, a bunch if protein from the parmesan cheese and the nuts and a fair amount if vitamins and fibre from the basil. Pesto definitely is healthy.

When using pesto, you really need to make sure to use a good one. One with high quality ingredients!! I either use my Super Easy 10-Minute Homemade Pesto, or the one from Pastafani. This also is made from organic ingredients and tastes soso good! You can get it with a 10% discount when using UNEPETITE10 on their website – it definitely is worth a try!

Then we have the ricotta and mozzarella cheese. They both contain some saturated fat, but they also are packed with protein and calcium. Plus, they add a whole bunch of deliciousness 🙂 then, there also is the pasta. Pasta is a great source of carbohydrates and also protein. If you want to go for a version that is even more nutrient-dense, you could just long for whole grain pasta.

How to make this dish?

As easy as pie (although I think this is easier than pie). What we need to do, is boil the pasta according to package instructions and lix it with the pesto. In the meantime we also need to prepare the ricotta mixture, for which we need to combine the ricotta, egg, salt and pepper. The ricotta mix really adds some depth into the dish and makes it really, really creamy! 

Once the pasta is mixed with the pesto, we‘re adding it to an oven-safe dish. Here, we are then topping it with the dollops of the ricotta mixture and about half of the mozzarella. Now, we need to give it all a good mix, so it gets kind of marble-ish and the ricotta and mozzarella are distributed evenly. What now is left to do is top it with the remaining mozzarella and breadcrumbs and drizzle it with some olive oil. Into the oven it goes and now we need to wait for 25-30 minutes until it‘s crispy on the top. 

While dish dish may look rather fancy or complicated, it really is everything else but this. It is soso simple to prepare and packed with so incredibly much flavor. All in all, it simply is an amazing dinner to feed a hungry fam or some hungry friends. 

I hope you‘ll enjoy this as much as we always do and that you‘ll have an amazing time cooking & eating it! 

Love,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière 

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A Family Favorite Pesto & Ricotta Pasta Bake

Regular pesto pasta is great yeah, but baked with molten cheesy goodness and indulgence, just damn. Next level. This pesto-ricotta and mozzarella pasta bake is just another level of tastiness and still soso easy to make! A family favorite and a must try!

Course dinner, lunch, Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 Minuten
Cook Time 30 Minuten
Total Time 45 Minuten
Servings 4 servings

What you will need

  • 400 g penne pasta
  • 200 g basil pesto
  • 100 g ricotta cheese
  • 200 g buffalo mozzarella
  • 1 egg
  • 4 tbsp breadcrumbs
  • olive oil, salt & pepper

How to

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

  2. Start by preparing the pasta according to package instructions, but cook 1 minute less.

  3. In the meantime mix the ricotta with the egg, salt and pepper until creamy. Cut the mozzarella into bite sized pieces.

  4. Once the pasta is done cooking, preserve 1/2 a cup of the water they were cooked in and drain the rest. Mix them with the pesto, and some of the pasta water until well combined.

  5. Add them to an oven safe dish and top it all with some dollops of the ricotta mixture and half of the mozzarella. Mix it all through gently, so the ricotta and mozzarella are evenly distributed, then top with the remaining mozzarella and breadcrumbs. Drizzle with the olive oil and bake for 25-30 minutes until crispy on the top.

  6. Serve with some basil and enjoy!!

Beetroot Pasta Bake with Goats Cheese

by 2 Kommentare

Is going to be your absolute favorite dish for busy weeknights. 30 minutes, super simple, incredibly delicious, packed with healthy stuff and pink! So what more are you asking for? I couldn’t imagine anything else! Creamy beetroot and goats cheese sauce paired with super delish pasta (whole wheat if wished) topped with fresh goats cheese and breadcrumbs and baked until crispy. Yes, that’s all I need after a long work day.

Probably you think, she’s talking about healthy stuff but promoting pasta? What? And I can tell you – yes! Although it has been said for years that pasta and carbs are unhealthy and make you “fat” that is so not true. Pasta is a great source of protein and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates provide you with energy throughout the day. It helps not being tired or not having energy. It also is great to eat pasta before a workout because then you will have way more energy than if just eating a salad. Whole wheat pasta also is a great way to include more fiber in your diet. Plus, pasta is super delicious und will satisfy you!

But pasta is, obviously, not the only component of this dish. Actually, the beetroot is the star of the show. I honestly love beets. They are super delicious I believ, especially paired with honey or goats cheese, super pretty (I mean look at that pink color) and packed with a lot of nutrients. For vegetables, they have a pretty solid protein content. Also they are high in fiber and low in calories. Folate and Vitamin C are two minerals/ vitamins that are very present in them too, which is great for the health. Beetroots are anti-inflammatory which is great, especially in winter. Also they may improve digestion and help to regulate your blood pressure levels. Besides all of these benefits, it is super delicious! 

The only aspect, I don’t really like about beets is that they take super long to cook! It is not difficult to prepare them, you just peel them and then cook, steam or bake them for an hour but it still takes a lot of time! But since this is a 30minute dish and most of us are not that patient when we are hungry, I decided to use precooked beets. You can find them almost everywhere, in the supermarket, on farmers market or normal markets. It really is not difficult to find them but it saves a lot of time! 

Other than beets, there are a few other ingredients in the sauce, but very few to be honest. We add some honey, for some extra sweetness, mustard, to give it a hearty flavor, goats cheese, for the creamy- and addictiveness, salt to embrace the flavor and oat milk to thin it out. If you do not like oat milk you can use any other milk or milk alternative of your preference. You do not heat anything up for the sauce, just blend it all together, which means fewer dishes and less time. The rest is pretty simple and self-explanatory; you drain the pasta and toss it with the sauce. Then the pasta is divided into oven safe dishes or one dish, as you prefer. (I use my le creuset mink pots and they are so adorable!!! I am obsessed with them haha, but you can also use one large one.) we add some more fresh goats cheese on top and sprinkle some breadcrumbs. If you want, top it with some extra Parmesan cheese, but that’s optional. We place them in the oven again, on high heat, grill and let it bake for 10-12 minutes until the cheese slightly melted and the breadcrumbs turned crispy.

I love serving this for guest, because you can prepare it very well and simply bake it when wanting to serve. But it really does make a great family dinner or a weeknight dish, when not wanting to spend too much time in the kitchen after an exhausting day or week. This is definitely one of my favorite dishes to make with beetroot because it is so simple but has so much flavor! I hope you like it as much as I do!

Enjoy & happy healthy cooking! 

Love,

Katie

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Beetroot Pasta Bake with Goats Cheese

A delicious 30 minute, super nutritious pasta dish for a weeknight dinner or to impress guests at a dinner party. Really easy and so good!

Course bowl, dinner, lunch, Main Course
Prep Time 5 Minuten
Cook Time 10 Minuten
Baking time 15 Minuten
Servings 4 servings
Calories 481 kcal

What you will need

That is what you will need:

  • 320 g pasta short ones, like mini penne, maccheroni, or similar, can use whole wheat if wanted
  • 1 large red onion
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 500 g cooked beetroot
  • 100 g goats cream cheese
  • 2 tsp honey
  • 1 tbsp mustard
  • 60 ml milk or any plant bast milk or milk alternative
  • 3 tbsp bread crumbs

How to

That is how it works:

  1. Bring a large pot with salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package instructios. Preheat the oven to 200°C (grill preferably)

  2. In a pan melt the butter. Thinly slice the onions into rings. Once the butter is hot, add the onions and brown them on high heat for about 8 minutes, until soft, brown and caramelized.

  3. Peel (if necessary) and cut the beets into chunks. Add them into a food processor or blender, along with the honey, mustard, half of thecaramelized onions, half of the goats cheese, a generous pinch of salt, and the milk or milk alternative. Blend until smooth. If too thick, add a little more milk or water.

  4. Once the pasta is done cooking, drain it and then add it back into the pot and toss it with the beetroot sauce and the remaining half of the onions. Either divide the pasta mix onto different small oven safe dishes or one large one, whatever you prefer. Top it with small dotllops of the remaining cheese and the breadcrumbs. Bake it in the oven for 10-12 minutes until the cheese is slightly molten and the breadcrumbs turned out crispy. Serve and enjoy!