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    Home » Recipes » Easy Pasta Recipes

    Baked pasta recipe | Dinner ideas

    June 8, 2021 by Raks Anand 2 Comments / Jump to Recipe

    Baked pasta that you can easily whip up for your family dinner, my go to recipe I make every week. Quick video, stepwise photos.

    baked pasta recipe
    Jump to:
    • 🥘 Ingredients
    • 📖 Variations
    • 👩‍🍳 Make ahead
    • 🎥 Video
    • 💭 Top tip
    • 📝 My notes
    • 💬 Related posts
    • Recipe card
    • 📸 Stepwise Photos

    When Aj started having Mac N cheese in Swensens, I asked him if I should make the same at home (a baked cheesy Mac and cheese). They have mushroom, yellow onion in it, but we always go for without mushrooms.

    Like always, he came up with his own idea, asking me to put pasta sauce in it and bake until the cheese on top becomes golden. So he wants cheesy, creamy as well as red pasta sauce added to jazz up. Obviously, in my first attempt itself he told he wanted this in his weekly dinner menu.

    Yes, he always have particular menu and is not easy to change it.

    baked pasta dinner ideas

    🥘 Ingredients

    Pasta - I always use penne as it is easy to fork it, but you can go for fusilli, elbow, farfalle or any type you want. To start with, I cook it al dente and proceed with the mixing, baking part. Just follow the cooking instructions given in the back.

    Cheese - I use two types of cheese in this recipe, cream cheese as well as mozzarella. At times I even use cheese spread in place of cream cheese. My recent favorite is herbed cream cheese (Arla).

    Others - To be honest, never add any vegetables or spinach in it in my quick version. But highly recommend to add some like carrots, mushroom, zucchini or spinach to make it nutritious.

    📖 Variations

    You can saute garlic, onion and vegetables followed by pasta sauce, add cooked pasta, sauce and cream cheese to it. And then bake it.

    Mix in a handful of grated cheese before baking for more cheesy results.

    Skip pasta sauce, make a white sauce and bake the same way.

    Stir in some pesto instead of red pasta sauce.

    👩‍🍳 Make ahead

    You can prepare the pasta until the step before baking and then cool it, refrigerate it to bake later the day or next day. It keeps good for next two days.

    Or freeze it with cling wrapped for upto a month. To bake frozen pasta, put it in fridge the before night and next day you can bake it with cheese topped over it.

    🎥 Video

    Is video more your thing? Quick video here.

    💭 Top tip

    • To cook pasta perfectly seasoned with salt, taste the pasta cooking water. It should be salty like sea water.
    • Do not over cook as it may lose it shape or break which wont look pleasant.
    • Save some pasta cooked water in case you need the pasta to loosen up. If you add this water, pasta wont stick to each other after it is drained from water.
    • Balance the acidity in sauce by adding ¼ teaspoon of sugar and some chilli flakes to it. Add some Italian herb for perfect flavor balance.

    📝 My notes

    Make sure to add enough pasta sauce for a juicy pasta bake. Mine was little on dry side this time as I added more pasta but forgot to adjust the pasta sauce measurement.

    If your oven is too hot and the top turning black instead of golden, you can cover (half way through baking time) the top with aluminium foil to prevent it.

    Also adjust the baking temperature plus or minus 10 deg if needed, as each oven may have different results.

    💬 Related posts

    You may also like

    • Homemade pasta sauce
    • Spinach lasagna
    • Pasta muffins

    Goes well with

    • Potato wedges
    • Minestrone soup
    • Baked Sweet potato fries

    Recipe card

    baked pasta featured image
    Print Pin
    4.56 from 9 votes

    Baked pasta | Dinner ideas

    Baked pasta that you can easily whip up for your family dinner, my go to recipe I make every week. Quick video, stepwise photos.
    Cuisine Global
    Prep Time 15 minutes
    Cook Time 30 minutes
    Servings 2
    Cup measurements

    Ingredients

    • 1.25 cup Penne pasta
    • 6 cups water
    • Salt
    • 1 tablespoon butter/ Olive oil
    • 2 cups Spinach I used baby spinach
    • ½ teaspoon Garlic powder or 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
    • ½ teaspoon Smoked paprika or Cayenne pepper/ chilli flakes
    • ½ teaspoon Italian herb like dried oregano
    • ¼ cup Cream cheese
    • ¾ cup Pasta sauce I used one with basil
    • 1 cup Grated Mozzarella cheese plus more if needed
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • Bring 6 cups water to boil and cook pasta as per directions given in the package.
    • Once al dente, keep aside. Reserve ¼ cup pasta cooked water in case you need later.
    • Clean and chop spinach roughly.
    • In a heavy bottomed pan, heat butter or olive oil.
    • Tip in the chopped spinach. Sprinkle sugar and saute 2 mins in medium heat.
    • Pour pasta sauce, 2 tablespoon of reserved pasta cooked water, paprika, cream cheese, garlic powder, cooked pasta and little salt if needed.
    • Mix well and cook for a minute. Switch off the flame.
    • Preheat oven at 200 deg C for (10-12 mins)
    • Transfer the cooked pasta to a baking dish, I usually use one oval and one small round dish.
    • Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top to cover the pasta.
    • Bake for 12-14 mins or until the cheese turns golden.
    • Sprinkle some Italian herb, chilli flakes to serve.

    Video

    Notes

    • Adjust baking temperature plus or minus 10 deg as needed.
    • Cover with aluminium foil half way if it starts to brown fast.
    • Middle rack is perfect with both heating elements on.
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    📸 Stepwise Photos

    1. First, bring 6 cups water to boil and cook pasta as per directions given in the package.

    2. Once al dente, keep aside. Reserve ¼ cup pasta cooked water in case you need later.

    3. Clean and chop spinach roughly.

    4. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat butter or olive oil.

    5. Tip in the chopped spinach. (If you are adding chopped garlic or onion, saute it first and then add spinach). After that, Sprinkle sugar and saute for 2 mins in low flame.

    saute spinach

    6. Pour pasta sauce, 2 tablespoon of reserved pasta cooked water, paprika, cream cheese, garlic powder, cooked pasta and then little salt if needed.

    cream cheese, sauce, pasta and others

    7. Mix well and cook for a minute. Switch off the flame.

    8. Preheat oven at 200 deg C for (10-12 mins)

    9. Transfer the cooked pasta to a baking dish, I usually use one oval and one small round dish.

    oven dish

    10. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top to cover the pasta. Bake for 12-14 mins or until the cheese turns golden. Finally, sprinkle some Italian herb, chilli flakes to serve.

    baked

    Enjoy hot, with you favorite side.

    easy baked pasta

    Other Simple and easy pasta recipes

    • Spinach green sauce pasta
      Spinach pasta recipe, Green sauce pasta
    • gnocchi recipe
      Eggless Gnocchi in brown butter and sage
    • creamy-avocado-pasta
      Avocado pasta recipe, creamy avocado pasta, vegan
    • Pesto without parmesan | Vegan pesto

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Vidhya

      June 09, 2021 at 9:44 am

      Fantastic Raks! Way to go!

      Reply
      • Raks Anand

        June 09, 2021 at 10:36 am

        Thank you dear!

        Reply

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    Raks anand

    Hi, I'm Rajeswari Vijayanand! I am the person behind Rakskitchen, sharing recipes with pictures & videos.

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