Family On A Budget

Here is a recipe I am going to make this weekend. It is quick and easy and very yummy. I buy big bags of pasta from Sam’s Club or stock up when pasta is on sale so I always have Rigatoni on hand. A great alternative to Rigatoni with spaghetti sauce.

Serves 4

1 pound rigatoni
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 10-ounce package frozen spinach, thawed
2 cups ricotta cheese – I use non fat
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups grated fontina or mozzarella cheese. – I use part skim mozzarella.

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Oil a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the rigatoni until almost done, about 12 minutes. Drain. Put the pasta in the prepared baking dish and toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil.

Meanwhile, squeeze as much of the water as possible from the spinach. Put the spinach in a food processor and puree with the ricotta, 3 tablespoons of the Parmesan, the nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stir in half the grated cheese.

Stir the spinach mixture into the pasta. Top with the remaining grated cheese and Parmesan. Drizzle the remaining tablespoon oil over the top. Bake the pasta until the top is golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.

Variation

You can substitute another chunky pasta, such as penne rigate, penne, ziti, or fusilli. Boil all of these one or two minutes less.

This recipe came from cooking.com