Baked penne is probably one of my favorite recipes that I like to put together when I can't think of anything else to eat. All you have to do is cook up some pasta, stir it together with some ricotta and mozzarella cheeses and pasta sauce, bake it for awhile in the oven, and voila!, dinner's ready. For tonight's baked penne I opted to include some fresh ingredients by harvesting some basil leaves from our herb garden and tossing in a handful of cherry tomatoes as well. Simple and done in less than an hour -- can't be much easier than that!
Baked Penne
makes 8 servings16 oz (- 2 C) penne pasta (I used Barilla Plus Penne)
sea salt
15 oz part-skim ricotta cheese
1 jar pasta sauce (I used Barilla tomato and basil sauce)
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
6 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
ground black pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil. When the water begins to boil, add a healthy pinch of salt to the water. Cook the pasta according to the manufacturer's directions.
3. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, stir together the ricotta cheese, 1 C of pasta sauce, mozzarella, and torn basil leaves. Gently stir in the cherry tomato halves. Season with freshly-ground black pepper.
4. Add enough pasta sauce to cover the bottom of a 3-quart round glass baking dish.
5. Spoon about half the pasta mixture into the baking dish. Cover with pasta sauce. Add another layer of pasta.
6. Cover the top of the pasta with the remainder of the pasta sauce and some shredded mozzarella.
7. Put the lid on the container or cover with aluminum foil.
8. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and let cool for five minutes before stirring.
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