Spinach Ricotta Pasta Bake is made with creamy ricotta and loads of spinach stirred through pasta, topped with pasta sauce, cheese and then baked until bubbly and golden. It tastes like a Spinach and Ricotta stuffed shells – but way faster to make!
Fabulous lazy Monday meal – made from scratch, using my cheeky “shake and pour” shortcut pasta sauce!
Spinach and Ricotta
Spinach and ricotta. We stuff things with it (Cannelloni, Rotolo, shells!), we layer things with it, we roll it up in puff pastry and we wrap it in pastry.
So why don’t we stir it through pasta bakes?
This is a lazy Monday meal I’ve been making for years. I know it’s a little different, but it really is tasty. It tastes like spinach and ricotta cannelloni or stuffed shells – but without the labour. 🙌🏻
Look at this pile of gooey, juicy deliciousness….no dry ricotta in MY pasta bakes!
Shake and pour pasta sauce!
Because this is a lazy meal, I make this with my shortcut homemade pasta sauce. It’s a shortcut recipe because I don’t cook it on the stove with sautéed onions and garlic like I ordinarily do. All I do is add pasta sauce flavourings right into a bottle of tomato passata, shake then pour it over the pasta bake.
To compensate for skipping the sautéed garlic and onions, I add extra flavours into the sauce. 🙂
Sub for tomato passata?
Tomato passata is pureed strained raw tomatoes, unflavoured. It’s sold in tall bottles in the pasta section of most supermarkets in Australia nowadays, and costs around the same as canned tomato. If you’re in the US or Canada, I’ve seen it at Walmart and here are a couple of Amazon – Mutti (excellent Italian brand I use) and Cento (a good value one). Or sub with what you know as tomato sauce.
What goes in Spinach Ricotta Pasta Bake
Here’s a snapshot of the ingredients. For convenience, I use frozen spinach here but fresh can be used in a cinch.
As for the ricotta, any type will work here. Some are creamier and softer than others which makes it easy to mix into the pasta.
If yours is the thicker more crumbly type, it’s an easy fix – just stir through some of the pasta cooking water to loosen it up. The starch in the pasta cooking water will make the ricotta mixture bind better than using normal water or milk to loosen the mixture. The same effect as tossing pasta through pasta sauces right before serving – it’s called emulsifying the sauce (what a show off!😂).
This really does taste like a Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni* – without the fiddly stuffing of the cannelloni tubes. Because as much as we all love eating those stuffed tubes of pasta smothered in tomato sauce and molten cheese, nobody’s jumping off the couch to offer to help stuff them. Right?? 😂
So – are you feeling lazy today too? -Nagi x
* For those of you in the US & Canada – cannelloni is basically the same as manicotti, except the tubes are slightly smaller and smooth, no ridges. Just as tasty!
All things Spinach and Ricotta!
-
Baked Spinach and Ricotta Rotolo – and it tastes as spectacular as it looks!
And more big juicy pasta bakes
-
Cheeseburger Casserole (Homemade Hamburger Helper) – OK, so it’s not baked, but it looks like a pasta bake!
-
Chili Mac and Cheese – ditto for this one 🙂
Watch how to make it
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Spinach & Ricotta Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 300g / 10 oz ziti pasta, uncooked, or other short pasta of choice
- 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese , shredded (or more! For topping)
Ricotta Mixture
- 1 lb / 500 g ricotta (Note 1)
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese , grated
- 2 garlic cloves , crushed
- 350g / 12oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and excess liquid pressed out
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese , shredded
- 3/4 tsp salt & pepper
Shortcut Pasta Sauce
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 700g / 24oz tomato passata (1 standard bottle) (Note 2)
- 1 tsp EACH onion and garlic powder
- 2 tsp dried Italian Mixed Herbs (Note 3)
- 1/2 tsp dried chili flakes , to taste (optional)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- Black pepper
- 2 tbsp water (if needed)
To Serve
- Parmesan cheese , grated
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
- Pasta Sauce: Pour out about 1/4 cup of the passata (to make room to add flavourings). Add the remaining Pasta Sauce ingredients into the bottle, screw the lid on and give it a shake.
- Cook pasta for time per packet MINUS 1 minute.
- SCOOP OUT 1 mugful pasta cooking water, drain and set aside.
- Ricotta Mixture - Mix Ricotta Mixture ingredients in a very large bowl. Use a splash of pasta cooking water if needed to make it creamy.
- Add pasta and stir to combine. Transfer to a heatproof baking dish.
- Top with Pasta Sauce, top with cheese. Loosely cover with foil.
- Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the cover and bake for a further 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Serve while hot and fresh!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published September 2015, updated April 2019 with fresh new photos, new writing, new video and most importantly, Life of Dozer section added!
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At what point do you need the cup of pasta water? Thanks x
Hi Kathy, this is mentioned in step 5 of the instructions 🙂 N x
So, so GOOD!! Simple, but tasty way to use leftover pasta sauce.
Nagi saves the day once again! My husband was originally going to cook dinner, a pot roast in the slow cooker. At around 12:30 I asked him if he was still planning to cook dinner, and he announced he was. I asked how long it would take to cook and he said “i don’t know, let me check the recipe” and it turned out it would need 8 hours to cook. We usually eat dinner at 6 so this was kind of a problem. I told him he could turn the slow cooker to high to cook the roast faster but he didn’t want to do that. “I’ll do pot roast tomorrow” he said “we can fix something else tonight” except by “we” he really was not referring to himself. So I was pinch hitting for dinner tonight and found we had all the ingredients for this…and it was great! I had given everyone modest portions on their plate, stating they could have more if they wanted it. My husband took one bite of his, said ‘this is good!” and then went back into the kitchen and loaded up his plate. 🙂 Thanks, Nagi, for saving dinner!
That’s amazing Margie, I’m so happy it was a hit! N x
I’m making this for dinner tonight, hope it looks as yummy as yours! It would be really useful if you gave the dimensions of the baking tray you use
This is delicious! I actually prefer it over cannelloni which is a favourite of mine. I added in some goats cheese as well. Thanks for the ace recipe!
Sounds amazing Mel – I’ll have to try with goats cheese! N x
Exactly the way you described it Nagi …gooey, juicy deliciousness! This recipe is a real comfort food keeper.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Felicity, that’s great!! N x
Yum! Perfect ( didn’t need to leave the house) lockdown meal! Didn’t have a jar of Passata , so I used a tin of chopped tomatoes mixed with some tomato paste.
Made this today and it was fantastic
Superb! 15 out of 10!
Thank you Nagi for the recipe it’s a keeper.
WAHOO!!! Thanks so much Mark! N x
This was yum, in the words of my husband “that was better than I expected for a vegetarian meal” so that’s high praise.
My question is can the leftovers be frozen? Since there is pasta and ricotta???
The above question about freezing should be after it’s been cooked??
You have done it again Nagi! We had this last night and it was delicious. It makes a lot and my teenage boys have asked for it again tonight, so I’m adding some chorizo just to make it a little different. Can always count on your recipes to deliver 100% flavour!!
Really nice. Used a Rustic passata and added a little bit more than listed for the chili flakes to give it a nice warm feel. It was a little too much ricotta cheese for the hubby but would defo cook again
Absolutely delicious and so easy and just loved the easy new recipe for quick sauce! I love it!
I must admit that I was a bit doubtful of the shake a sauce method. This was really tasty and came together pretty fast. I may even just use a good quality canned sauce to make it even faster next time. Really liked the tip of adding pasta water to the ricotta to make it creamier. All four of us gave this a big thumbs up. Thanks for another great recipe.
So good! I only had a 250g of spinach, so i added some grated carrot. It was delicious and super easy.
I have jars of tomato puree from my summer garden, and this was a genius way to create a quick sauce. Whole family loved it!
Excellent recipe and easy to follow.
AMAZING!!! Another 5 star recipe, thank you!
Could I use mozzarella and cheddar? Cause I have a bag of mozzarella and cheddar already shredded. But its mozzarella and cheddar mixed together
I’ve done that, still really good.