pasta Archives - Good Food St. Louis

Zucchini-Tomato Sauce atop noodles.

As I foraged the refrigerator, all I could find were bits and pieces of previous meals. Hmmm. . . it would take some imagination to make dinner from such a potpourri of leftovers. I thought to myself, “What would Ina Garten do?” I’m thinking she’d give her concoction a cute name, declare it yummy, and instantly it would gain Internet fame.

I Intensified My Search

During my refrigerator raid, I came upon a couple of zucchinis, that were past their prime, part of a green pepper, and lots of garlic, and onion. Whoopie! I spotted a jalapeno pepper, lurking in the back of the vegetable bin.

I did a dive into the freezer and came up with some homemade tomato sauce and a chunk of ground beef with only a little freezer burn. Terrific! With a few noodles, I’d have me a zucchini-tomato sauce in no time.

I chunked the veggies and tossed them into my cast iron skillet. I added the meat and anointed them all with a good olive oil. A bit of milk helps to soften raw beef, so I poured all I had from a near empty carton. Wine never hurts, nor do a few red pepper flakes. In they went. Because the pros tells us that any tomato sauce benefits from a splash of pasta water and a chunk of butter, I added those, too.

It Was Magnifico!

When I mixed noodles and sauce, it was all the better.

I checked to see if there was anything similar on the Internet and found a recipe that included eggplant cubes and cheese. All good additions to the chunky vegetable tomato sauce.

I think this is one that Ina Garten would approve. 🙂

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Skillet Lasagna

An updated version of the traditional lasagna recipe.

Course Pasta

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
12 oz. lasagna noodles
20 oz. frozen chopped spinach thawed
2 cups ricotta 16 ounces
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese 1 1/2 ounces, plus more for serving
1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. ground beef
Two 24 oz. jars Rao’s Homemade Marinara sauce
8 oz. low-moisture mozzarella grated

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 with a rack in the top third. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook noodles, stirring a few times until al dente, about 6 minutes. Drain.
Meanwhile, wrap thawed spinach in a clean kitchen towel and wring out as much excess liquid as possible. Transfer to a medium bowl and combine with ricotta, Parmesan, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ¼ teaspoon of pepper.
Heat oil in a 10-inch, high-sided, ovenproof skillet over medium-high. Add beef and season with salt and pepper; break up into small pieces with a wooden spoon and cook, turning a few times, until meat is browned, about 8 minutes.
Drain excess fat from skillet and scrape browned beef into a large heatproof bowl. Set aside 1 ½ cups sauce and stir the remaining marinara into the bowl with browned beef.
Using the same skillet, (do not return to the heat) spread about 1 cup of the sauce mixture in a thin layer at bottom of skillet. Arrange a third of the noodles over the sauce, breaking the noodles up to fit if necessary, and spread half of the remaining sauce mixture over the noodles.
Spread on half the spinach-ricotta mixture and sprinkle with a third of the mozzarella. Repeat layering one time with another third of the noodles, the remaining half of the meat sauce mixture, the remaining half of the spinach-ricotta and another third of the mozzarella.
Top lasagna with remaining third of the noodles. Spread atop that reserved marinara sauce you earlier set aside. Sprinkle with remaining third of the mozzarella. Bake lasagna until golden and bubbly, about 25 minutes.
Let sit 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Cut leftovers into slices and wrap in plastic to freeze. Rewarm individual slices in microwave by first defrosting and then heating on high for 2-3 minutes.