Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Four cheese baked veg pasta

One weekend, instead of regular roti-subzi, I made this pasta dish, which I loaded with veggies and cheese. This is the famous four cheese pasta, with part-skim Ricotta, cottage cheese(paneer), mozzarella and parmesan. This one I made partly on stove-top and partly in Oven. This is very easy and quick to make and defnitely filling...Kids will love this in thier lunch-box, I am sure about it. You can load it with lots of veggies,I added spinach, broccoli, carrot & corn.

Ingredients :

Whole wheat penne or any type of pasta
Cottage cheese/paneer( scrambled) : 1 cup
Part-skim ricotta cheese : 1/2 cup
Mozzarella cheese(shredded) : about 2/3 cup
Parmesan Cheese(grated) : 1/3 cup
Spinach(chopped) : 1 cup
Carrot(chopped in bite-size pieces) : 1 cup
Frozen or fresh corn : 1 cup
Broccoli (cut into medium size florets): 2 cups
Tomato puree : 1 can
Crushed tomatoes : 1 can
Dried Italian herbs(basil, oregano) : 1-2 tblsp.
Chilli flakes : 1-2 tsp.
Onion : 2(medium)
Garlic : 3-4 cloves
Salt and black pepper taste
Olive oil/cooking oil : 1 tblsp.+cooking spray/1 tsp.oil (to grease the baking dish)

Method :

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F/175 degrees C.Cook pasta until tender but still firm, a minute or 2 less than the package directs. Drain.
Mix mozzarella, cottage cheese and ricotta in a owl and mix well.
In a pot, boil water and blanch carrot and broccoli pieces until just tender. Set aside.
In a pan, add oil, fry onions until they look transparent, add grated garlic cloves. Then add crushed tomatoes, chopped spinach and corn. Saute for 2 minutes.
Then add tomato puree, mixed cheese, dried Italian herbs. Mix well. Now add cooked pasta in the pan. Add salt, chilli flakes and black pepper to taste. Mix everything well and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Now grease a big baking dish, pour the prepared pasta in there, Sprinkle grated parmesan allover the pasta. Put the dish in the oven and bake until cheese melts, about 8-10 minutes.