Pesto Pasta Surprise

One of the other women on the message board I belong to has a food-based blog I follow, FrostedFingers.com. Every Tuesday she posts a new recipe, and last week's looked super easy and good, Angel Hair Pasta. The only downside was that it used store bought pesto and alfredo sauce--both things I love but don't generally eat because of the high fat content in both. When I was doing my meal planning for the week I thought of that recipe and decided to make something similar but with ricotta instead of the alfredo. Then when I was thinking about it more, it sounded a lot like a recipe my mom made recently for my brother when she was visiting him. I called her today and got the recipe, so I think mine is going to be a combination of the two.

Pesto Pasta Surprise

1 package whole wheat penne
1 jar marinara sauce
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella
1/4 cup pesto
Additional mozzarella for topping

Prepare penne (or pasta of your choice) per package directions; set aside. Combine cheeses and pesto in medium bowl; set aside. In 8x12 pan, layer as follows: half of the cooked pasta, half the marinara sauce, all the cheese/pesto mixture, remaining half of the pasta, remaining marinara, additional mozzarella.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.

*****

I'm really excited to try this tonight. I have some pesto leftover from making Veggie Pesto Pizza last week, so however much of that I have in the freezer is what I'm going to use. I may use a bit more ricotta, too, because I like cheesy pasta.

Along with this I'm going to make Barefoot Contessa's Garlic Ciabbata Bread and a salad. Yum!!