August 30, 2009

Pasta Pie

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem


Lasagna is quick. Lasagna is yummy. Lasagna is simple. Lasagna can get boring. Almost as boring as this paragraph.

Boiling up pasta and throwing in sauce and veggies is a quick and easy iftaar any night. The only problem is, it can start to get very boring. But thats the great thing about pasta, you can change things up and get endless varieties of delicious meals. Lasagna has the best stage presence: its layered, colorful and stays together in compact pieces. Try swapping out pasta shapes and fillings. I made this dish with macaroni, broccoli and a traditional lasagna Ricotta filling. But the kicker is to bake it in a spring form pan and allowing it cool for at least 15 minutes before unmolding and ta dah! Its a whole new dish that can feed a load of people, masha'allah!




Pasta Pie
I must stress that this dish can be personalized to your taste, like most pasta dishes. On this particular day, these are just the things I had on hand. Use whatever pasta and vegetables you have. The beauty of this dish lies in using the spring form pan which helps keeps the shape.

1 box elbow pasta
2 jars red sauce (marinara, spaghetti, etc)
1 container ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 lb cooked ground beef
frozen broccoli
mozzarella
olives
Italian seasoning to taste
salt & pepper to taste


1. Boil pasta according to box directions. Drain when tender but do not rinse. Add in desired sauce and veggies.

2. In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta cheese,eggs, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.

3. Spread half the pasta mixture in the bottom of a lightly greased spring form pan. Next, spead ground beef in even layer followed by ricotta mixture and last, the other half of the pasta. Sprinkle mozzarella in top.

4. Covered with greased foil (so the cheese doesn't stick) and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove foil and keep under broiler for a couple minutes until cheese is brown and bubbly. Serve with biscuits and salad, enjoy!

5 comments:

  1. Looks so delicious & tempting...I love the olive topping.

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  2. This looks yummy. May I have the recipe.

    Also, feel free to visit my blog at

    http://littlemisscook.com

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  3. This sooo reminds me of my fav dominos pizza I order. I will try it soon inshallah since I have ricotta cheese sitting in my fridge wondering what I will do with it!

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  4. I have teenage boys so I usually cook at least 8 to 10 servings for the 6 of us, have some lunch leftovers. Also there is DH's friend at work who we count in for some lunch leftovers. I may have to triple this recipe to make everybody happy.

    About the ingredients:
    Is it 1lb of pasta?
    8oz/16oz ricotta?
    about 7C homemade sauce (2-28oz jars)?
    1/2lb or 1lb mozzarella?

    You write recipes the way I do. I write down the ingredients without amounts. When I started the SparkPeople diet I suddenly had to think about the amounts of things I was using so I could get a decent calorie count. Do you post to any sites with nutritional counts? Would it be okay if I enter your recipe to my SparkRecipe account?

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  5. Salaam Alaikum Sis Smmgraham...masha'allah, sounds like you have a big family and many mouths to feed, may Allah reward you for all your efforts! Im so sorry about not being clear with the amounts, and like you said, I'm not a big measure-er unless its baking. But just to clarify some amounts, this was one box of pasta which is 1lb ,a 16 oz container of ricotta, the sauce were 28oz each and I used a bag of shredded mozzarella, which I believe is 2 cups (and some shredded cheddar thrown on top for visual interest). I haven't posted any nutritional info for recipes but hope to start inshallah and yes, you can post the recipe other places if you can include a credit link along with it :)

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Tell me what you think! As always, feedback and reviews are appreciated...happy cooking!