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!

Delicious Veggie Pizza

Now doesn't that make your mouth water?

OOOOOHHHHHHH Pizza! The mere sound of it makes my mouth water! I LOVE pizza….can't explain to what degree and magnitude!

Me being the cook-from-scratch kind of gal, have been making the dough myself for sometime now, instead of the ‘Boboli ready made’ crust. In fact, I have never bought the ready made crust. I improve on the technique every time I make the dough at home. I am still learning.

The pizza dough recipe is pretty simple. Here is the recipe linked or here it is below (in case the link is broken).

Ingredients

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water- microwave a cup of water for a minute or so.
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, and 1 tbsp or more for dusting

In a big bowl (plastic or glass), combine water, sugar and yeast. Stir gently and let it sit for about 5 min, until foamy. DO NOT USE METAL objects like a stainless steel spoon or a bowl. Metal inhibits enzyme production. Yeast produces the enzyme Amylase, helping it rise.

Now add salt, olive oil, and about half of the flour and knead well. Now add the rest of the flour slowly and knead well into a ball. This dough should be elastic. Add some more olive oil if the dough is too dry or alternatively, add some flour if too wet. Knead for about 5 more minutes

Lightly oil the same bowl and place the dough in it. Turn the dough to coat it with oil. Slightly cover it with a damp (NOT wet) kitchen towel and let it sit for an hour, until it doubles in size. This is a basic pizza dough recipe.

Once the dough is ready, divide it into 4 equal balls and let it sit 15min while you chop the veggie toppings. I happen to have green pepper, eggplant, basil, green onion and cheddar/mozzarella cheese blend at home. You can use any combination of veggie and cheese to suit your taste buds.

Veggie Pizza

1.5 cup Marinara/Pizza sauce- home made or store bought

1 medium bell pepper, diced

A bunch of green onion, sliced (the white and the green stem)

½ Italian eggplant, diced

5-6 basil leaves- chiffonade (a fancy term for cut in ribbons)

Italian seasoning, as needed

All purpose flour, as needed

Veggie toppings

Pre heat oven to 400F.

On a clean working space, sprinkle 1 tbsp flour. Now, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is ¼” thick. Do not worry about the ‘roundness’ of the dough. It will come with practice. If you want a think crust pizza, like I do, thin it out a bit more. Take care not to tear the dough by over-working it.

Now spread 1-2 tbsp pizza sauce on the pizza. I like mine with plenty of sauce. Top it with the diced veggies, basil and cheese. Sprinkle with cheese on top, about 2 tbsp, depending on how much you love cheese.

Repeat the same with the other 3 dough balls. Top with veggies and cheese.

Before the pizza goes into the oven.

Bake for about 10-13min until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly and melted. Voila, veggie, pizza. NOW---DEVOUR!

Variation:

I sometimes saute a cup of chopped onion, carmelise (means cooking onions in oil with no salt unti it turns golden brown and sweet!) it and top it on the pizza. YUMMY!

I almost always use feta cheese with Greek-style toppings like olives, basil, cherry tomatoes, spinach. A Greek salad on the pizza! I also love goat cheese instead of mozarella.

Try spreading pesto or hummus for a true, unique Mediterranean feast!