Hi everyone! Hope your week started off great!
This past Friday I was craving lasagna, but didn’t want to fool with lasagna noodles and all the assembling and layering that goes a long with making lasagna. I decided to use penne noodles and omit the layering completely, and ended up with a delicious product.
This pasta recipe is not only delicious and filling, but also somewhat healthy! I used a low-fat ricotta and a reduced-fat mozzarella cheese. I used a lean ground beef as well, but you could easily omit the beef completely if you would like!
Lighter Penne Lasagna
- 1 box penne noodles
- 1 lb. lean ground beef (optional)
- 1 jar marinara sauce
- 2-3 C. fresh spinach
- 1 (8 oz.) container low-fat ricotta cheese
- 2 C. reduced-fat shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 C. pesto
- Preheat oven to 375
- Put noodles on stove and bring to a boil.
- While noodles are boiling brown the ground beef. Drain.
- Combine ground beef and marinara sauce. Set aside.
- In a small bowl combine ricotta, 1 C. of the mozzarella and pesto. Set aside.
- Once noodles are cooked, place fresh spinach into collander and pour noodles over top. (This will wilt the spinach!)
- Combine beef mixture with noodles and marinara sauce. Pour into greased 9×13 baking dish.
- Spoon ricotta mixture onto noodles. Lightly spread with back of spoon. (Doesn’t have to be perfect)
- Top with remaining 1 C. of mozzarella and place in oven.
- Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. For the last 5 minutes turn oven to low broil.
Have a great day (:
