We love all things pasta over here and this was a new and fun way to serve a family favorite! The original recipe is from Tastes Better from Scratch and I really only tweaked it a bit! This was great for a weeknight when you don’t have a ton of time or you could prep in advance and just toss it in the oven, when you have even less time! I doubled the recipe, so just keep that in mind when you see the pics below!
Ingredients
- 8 ounces of spaghetti noodles (or half a standard pack)
- 2 cup of grated or shredded parmesan cheese (I used shredded)
- 1/4 cup of fresh basil leaves, chopped (I just grabbed a handful from the garden)
- 3 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup of ricotta cheese (original recipe calls for cottage cheese but it weirds me out so I used ricotta)
- 1 1/2 cups of pasta sauce (I browned meat and tossed in some Rao’s marinara)
- Salt/Pepper to taste
Steps
- Boil your noodles, drain, and set in a large bowl.
- If you plan on prepping your own sauce, you could brown some ground beef, sauté some veggies, pour in your sauce to warm through. The possibilities are endless!
- In a small bowl, beat your egg and then toss that into your large bowl with the noodles. Add in the butter, parmesan cheese, basil, and salt/pepper. Toss until well combined.
- Lightly grease your deep dish pie plate or baking dish. You could use cooking spray but I just used butter.
- Move your pasta combo to the pie plate and pat everything down into place.
- Spread your ricotta on top in a nice even layer and then spoon on your sauce.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Allow to cool 5-10 minutes before slicing into wedges to serve. I did not wait and while delicious, the wedges didn’t hold…so be patient!
This really was delicious! Even though one kid refused to try it because he saw the tiniest sliver of basil, the other kid loved it! 😉