Buon Giorno! Over at Geeks Who Eat Headquarters we are celebrating all things Italian! With a little help from our friends at Fry’s Food Stores (or whatever Kroger is in your neck of the woods), we are venturing into the realm of Italian recipes with a Fully Loaded Veggie Pasta Bake! Fry’s is currently running their Taste of Italy promotion. This means that your local Fry’s/Kroger Store has a slew of delicious Italian products.
With all of these wonderful products to choose from, we decided that we really wanted to do an entree recipe. We tend to focus a lot of tacos for entrees, so this was a great way for us to think outside of the box. One of the specials being offered is a buy one get one with Orti d’Italia Pasta Sauce and Di Martino Pasta. This was perfect, we figured we’d try our hand at a pasta bake. The result was this Fully Loaded Veggie Pasta Bake!
This dish is a perfect meal for the whole family and is easy to make. Loaded with veggies like kale, mushrooms, and zucchini, you can feel a little bit better about eating the copious amounts of cheese in this pasta. It also pairs well with the Taste of Italy Tradtional Caprese Salad and a nice red wine.
Have you visited Fry’s Food Stores Taste of Italy display? What were your favorite items? Do you have your own recipe that is a Taste of Italy? We’d love to see it! Leave a comment below or use the hash tag #GeekEats! Until next time, ciao!
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 8 oz whole mushrooms; quartered
- 1 medium zucchini; sliced and quartered
- 4 leaves curly green kale; stem removed and roughly chopped
- 1 jar Tomato Basil Orti D'Italia Pasta Sauce
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 4.25 oz can chopped black olives
- 1 package Di Martino Penne Pasta
- 15 oz container part skim Ricotta
- 1 cup finely grated Pecorino cheese
- 1 cup finely grated Parmesan Regiano cheese
- Basil to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Heat olive oil. Make sure pan is big enough to hold sauce.
- Add mushrooms, zucchini, and kale.
- Cook until just tender.
- Add pasta sauce, garlic, and black olives and bring to a boil.
- Turn heat down and simmer, stirring occasionally.
- While sauce simmers, cook pasta according to package directions.
- Drain pasta and combine it in a bowl with the Ricotta and Pecorino.
- Stir carefully until well combined. (Be careful not to mash the noodles)
- Pour half of the pasta sauce mixture into a 9x13 baking dish covering the entire bottom.
- Carefully spread pasta and cheese mixture into the baking dish.
- Top with remaining sauce.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Remove from oven and top with Parmesan.
- Bake for 3-5 more minutes until cheese is melted.
- Remove from oven and top with chopped basil.
- Serve.
*The Geeks participated in an Influencer Challenge with Fry’s Food Stores to facilitate the creation of this recipe and will be compensated at its completion; opinions are wholly our own. View our Disclosure Policy for more info.
With the weather almost cooling off I am ready for some pasta bakes. Thanks for sharing on Creative K Kids #TastyTuesdays