Marvelously Meatless Baked Penne Rigate

Recently Grandma came for a visit. When I picked her up for the visit she informed me she gave up meat on Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent. This wasn't too big an issue for me because GoodMan and I are trying to eat less red meat and we've been taste testing quite a few fish recipes. But one Friday during her visit we planned to have two of our sons and their families over for dinner. My family is used to big hearty meals when they come to visit. I had to comb through some old favorites to come up with a dish that would satisfy Grandma's pledge to go meatless and my other family's taste for something more than twigs and leaves.

In my search for a recipe I ran across my old recipe for Baked Penne Rigate. I used to make that quite often when I needed a dish to take to a pot luck dinner or to send to a family with a new baby, or to take to a person just moving in to a new home. It is a really easy recipe to prepare, it can be doubled for a big family, and it freezes really well for baking later. I can't remember why I stopped making it. I probably just started trying new recipes and didn't go back to this old one until now.

If you've ever eaten at a Sbarro restaurant in the malls or airports you may have had their Baked Ziti. My Baked Penne Rigate is very much like that. In fact, you can use ziti, or other types of pasta. I just find penne rigate tends to hold on to the sauce best for this recipe. I made this recipe back when my gown sons were little boys, so I'm afraid if I ever knew where I got the recipe I don't remember it now. 

Let me show you how I make it:

 I'll give you the recipe for a 9x13 pan, but it can easily be doubled or halved. I like to make a double batch and put one half in a 9x13 pan for us and then put the remainder in a couple of smaller foil pans and freeze them for later use. They come in handy when you find a friend in need of an emergency meal. You can pop it in the oven and pick up a packaged salad and some rolls and you've got a complete meal. I've even taken over a couple of frozen loaf-size disposable pans of this to a friend who was scheduled for surgery. I suggested she put them in her freezer and when she didn't feel up to cooking she could just put one in the oven until heated through.
  To make this you'll need 1/2 pound of penne rigate pasta, 15 ounces of ricotta cheese (I use low fat), 3 cups of mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, and a 26-ish ounce jar of spaghetti sauce. Our favorite is the Ragu chunky garden style.

I made the pasta according to the directions on the package, but I cut the cooking time short by about 2 minutes so the pasta was slightly undercooked. This is because the pasta will cook more in the oven. While the pasta was cooking I mixed the ricotta cheese and 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese in a large bowl.

When the noodles were cooked I drained them and then mixed them with the cheeses in the bowl.

 I spread about 1/2 of the spaghetti sauce on the bottom of the pan. See those chunks of veggies? That's what you get with the chunky garden style spaghetti sauce...enough veggie to make me feel good, but not so much as to be obvious to the kids!

 Then I put the pasta and cheese mixture on top of the sauce, and add the remaining tomato sauce.

 Then I sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top.

 And finally, I sprinkled the remaining mozzarella cheese on the top of everything else. Then I put it in the oven set at 350 degrees until everything is heated through and bubbly. It usually takes about 25 minutes. I would show you a picture of it right out of the oven, but I was too slow. My family got it out of the oven while I was busy with Grandma and by the time I got there I was lucky to be able to find some left to put on our dishes!
 I added a homemade garlic breadstick and my carb-loaded dinner was complete (I really added a salad, but didn't take a picture of it).

This is the official recipe for Baked Penne Rigate

8 ounce Penne Rigate pasta, cooked and drained
15 ounce package of ricotta cheese
3 cups mozzarella cheese, divided
26 ounce jar spaghetti sauce, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix ricotta cheese and half of the mozzarella cheese.
Stir in cooked pasta.
In a 9x13 glass pan, spread 1/2 of the spaghetti sauce.
Spread pasta and cheese mixture on top of spaghetti sauce.
Put remaining spaghetti sauce on top of pasta mixture.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top of spaghetti sauce.
Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese on top of Parmesan cheese.
Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly.

What was the taste tester's bottom line?
This is another family favorite. And now it's passed the test for the newest generation!

The bottom line: Next time I'll make a double batch and freeze some smaller  portions so GoodMan and I can heat them up for quick 2-person dinners.