Skillet baked rigatoni for Meatless Monday

I don't do the whole meatless Monday thing. I like my meat. I would add meat to this next time. But it was yummy without it too, and I know lots of no meaters out there! I think ground Italian sausage browned and just sprinkled in between the layers would be divine.

The sun shines right in my kitchen at dinner cooking time. It's nice for me to feel, but it's not nice for my pictures!

I know, I know, nothing to do with rigatoni! But I looked over in the middle of cooking and my too cute for words kids were just laying there hugging each other.

And I agree with the original blogger, I love using my cast iron skillet to bake in!

Go visit Heather Cristo Cooks for the instructions! 

Ingredients

• -1lb rigatoni pasta
• -8 ounces ricotta cheese
• -4 ounces goat cheese Hubby won't go for goat cheese, so I just added some shredded mozarella
• -Kosher salt
• -Fresh black pepper
• -3 cups marinara (or good quality store bought marinara) I used Bertolli Vidalia Onion. 
• -1 handful fresh basil leaves Didn't have basil. I substituted fresh spinach leaves in the place of basil, tasted great and uped the veggie quota for the day!
• -½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. 2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the rigatoni and cook to 2 minutes shy of al dente. Drain them.
3. 3. In a medium sized bowl, combine the ricotta cheese and the goat cheese and stir until well combined. Season with kosher salt and black pepper.
4. 4. Put the cheese mixture in a pastry bag or Ziploc and snip the end off. Pipe the room temperature cheese into the rigatoni noodles.I will stress the room temp issue here. It is infinitely harder with cold cheese!
5. 5. Pour 1 cup on the bottom of a 10” skillet. Follow that with the basil spinach leaves.
6. 6. Line up all the noodles in concentric circles, 1 layer at a time.
7. 7. When all of the noodles are in the pan. Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the noodles.
8. 8. Sprinkle the parmesan over the top of the sauce. (if you want to refrigerate, this is the point where you would do that).
9. 9. Bake the pasta about 15 minutes until the edges are getting golden and the dish is very hot.
10. 10. Serve hot!

Preparation time: 20 minute(s)
Cooking time: 25 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 6