🍽️Vegetable Ricotta Farfalle Bake
A Little Messy.
Very Good.
Some meals begin with a recipe.
Others begin with looking at what is in the kitchen
and wondering what might happen if you put it all together.
This one became layers of bow-tie brown rice pasta,
vegetables,
ricotta,
tomato sauce,
and mozzarella
something somewhere between baked pasta and vegetable lasagna,
without needing to be either one.
It is warm,
substantial,
forgiving,
and perhaps best of all,
it freezes beautifully.
Sometimes supper doesn’t need a pedigree.
It just needs to be good.
🍄 What You’ll Need
8 oz bow-tie (farfalle) pasta
1 large portobello mushroom, chopped
1 medium zucchini, diced
½ medium onion, diced
2 generous handfuls fresh spinach, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon oil for sautéing
1 cup ricotta
1½ cups shredded mozzarella, divided
1 egg
Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper
🍅 For the Sauce
1½–2 cups crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
½ cup tomato sauce
½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper
A splash of water, if needed
And if there happens to be garlic in the kitchen,
invite it. 😁
Two cloves sautéed with the onion would be lovely
but the dish doesn’t depend upon it.
🌿 Make It
1. Tend the Vegetables
Heat the oven to 375°F.
Sauté the onion and portobello in the oil over medium heat
until the mushroom has released much of its moisture
and begins to brown.
Add the zucchini
and cook for another 3–4 minutes.
Add the spinach last and cook only until wilted.
This little bit of patience matters.
Mushrooms,
zucchini,
and spinach all carry plenty of water,
and we’d rather leave that water in the skillet
than create a small lake at the bottom of the casserole.
2. Make the Sauce
Combine the crushed tomatoes,
tomato paste,
tomato sauce,
Italian seasoning,
salt and pepper.
Let it simmer for 5–10 minutes if you have time.
You’re looking for a sauce with some body
not something watery.
3. Cook the Bow Ties
Cook the pasta in salted water,
stopping about 3 minutes before it is completely done.
Drain.
Add the bow ties to the prepared tomato sauce
and gently stir
The pasta will finish cooking in the oven.
4. Make the Ricotta Filling
Mix together:
1 cup ricotta + 1 egg + ½ cup mozzarella + ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
+ a little salt and pepper.
Fold the cooked vegetables into the ricotta mixture.
Vegetable Ricotta Farfalle Bake
🍅 Build the Layers
This isn’t lasagna.
And, as it turns out,
bow ties have absolutely no intention
of pretending that they are. 😂
So instead of trying to create
a lot of little layers,
we’re giving each part of the dish
a place of its own.
In a 9×9 pan, layer:
½ the tomato with bow ties
↓
½ the ricotta mixture
↓
All of the sautéed vegetables
↓
Remaining ricotta mixture
↓
Remaining tomato-coated bow ties
↓
About 1 cup mozzarella over the top
Don’t worry about making the layers perfect.
Spread them as evenly as you reasonably can
and let the casserole do the rest in the oven.
A few bow ties sticking through the mozzarella
are a good thing.
Those are the ones that get
those lovely browned,
slightly crisp edges.
🔥 Bake
Cover loosely and bake at 375°F for 25 minutes.
Uncover and bake another 10–15 minutes,
until everything is bubbling
and the mozzarella has begun to brown.
Then comes the difficult part.
Leave it alone for 10 minutes. 😂
The ricotta needs a little time to set
so you get actual pieces rather than a delicious Italian landslide.
Vegetable Ricotta Farfalle Bake
