Penne with Tomato sauce, Vegetables and Cheese Casserole

If you guys have read my earlier posts, you might know I am not the biggest fan of Italian food. Having said that, I agree it is easy, quick and delicious! However, baking pasta has been an obsession these days. Lasagna is one of my favs.

I like the idea of casserole dishes- it’s a one meal dish. You can freeze them; make a big batch that will last a week at least.

Here, I have used penne with veggies in a tomato sauce. Feel free to use macaroni, farfalle or rotini- or any other small pasta. This is a layered dish, with sauce, pasta, veggie mixture and cheese. You may use béchamel sauce or Alfredo even; I prefer a tomato base in most of the Italian dishes. I have made my own sauce, gives an authentic twist to your recipe, in my opinion.

Ingredients:

1 lb Penne pasta- cooked according to directions

1 cup cheese- cheddar, feta, pepper jack or any cheese you have at hand

1-2 tbsp Bread crumbs

Spring onions to top

Tomato sauce

A 28 oz canned diced tomato (or you may use crushed/ stewed tomato)

2 springs of rosemary, chopped fine

7-8 basil leaves, chiffonade

4 garlic cloves, sliced

1 medium onion, diced fine

1 tsp garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

Heat the oil in a pot over low heat. Add the rosemary and garlic. Let it cook for 3 min until fragrant. Do not let it burn.

Now, crank up the heat to medium. Add the onion, salt and pepper. Let it sweat for another 3 min or so. Now, add the diced tomato and garlic powder. Let it simmer over medium heat for about 30min, stirring occasionally. Tomato sauce will splatter once hot. Please be careful! Now, add the basil leaves and switch the stove off.

Home made Tomato sauce with plenty of rosemary

Vegetable mixture

2 cups of veggies like eggplant, red and green pepper, medium onion, zucchini, and mushroom, corn, carrot- all diced

2 garlic cloves- minced

1 tbsp Italian seasoning (a dry mix of oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram and rosemary)

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt as needed

Heat the oil in a pot. Add the garlic and the Italian seasoning and cook them for about a minute. Now add the veggie. Let it cook for about 5-8min until all the veggies are soft. Add salt. Stir well and switch the stove off.

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a baking/casserole dish, pour the sauce as the first layer. The next layer is the pasta. Then layer the veggies and finally cheese. Repeat this all the way to the top of the dish. Top it with cheese and bread crumbs. The crumbs give a crunch texture to bite into, which we all love!

Layer of tomato sauce and pasta

Layered all the way to the top of the dish

Bake for 20-25min until the cheese is bubbly and melted and the bread crumb is toasty and golden brown. You may cover your dish with aluminum foil to prevent the cheese from over-browning.

Top with the spring onion, both white and green stems.

The final look!

Variation:

To bake a Mexican flare, add black beans, jalapeno along with the veggies and try a Mexican cheese like Queso Fresca or Cotija. They are dry, saltier cheese.

Try béchamel sauce or Alfredo sauce (see the pic below) instead of the tomato sauce. Use any veggies you have at hand. I love this dish with feta cheese.

The pics below are Baked Rotini with Alfredo sauce. My sister baked them! She followed the same directions as above but used store bought Alfredo sauce and a slightly different combination of veggies.

Rotini-Alfredo pasta bake

You can see the cheese all melting and yummy!