CEimB Four Cheese Baked Pasta with Shiitake Mushrooms

Is there really anything better than baked pasta? I mean…think Lasagna? Oh yum! This recipe wasn’t too far off from a lasagna come mac-n-cheese dish. It was really cheesy but had tomatoes in the sauce as well. Not sure how you could possibly go wrong with this dish.

The recipe from our CEimB group was chosen by Lindsey of 71 Cookbooks. She sure knew how to pick ‘em.

The original recipe didn’t  include mushrooms, but that never stopped me from adding those little fungi into a dish. At Christmas time, a very dear friend gave me a shiitake mushroom log from which I grew my own shiitakes. They were ready just in time for this pasta dish.

Ingredients

Ø 1lb whole wheat pasta (I used Elbows because they’re FUN and the dish was cheesy like Mac and cheese because it IS 4 cheese pasta…)

Ø 1 ½ cups Fat Free cottage cheese

Ø 15 oz part skim ricotta cheese

Ø 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese – divide in half

Ø 3 TBS parsley, chopped

Ø 1 tsp Italian seasoning

Ø 1 TBS olive oil

Ø ½ large onion, chopped

Ø 4 tsp minced garlic

Ø 15 oz crushed tomatoes

Ø 8 oz tomato sauce

Ø 1 tsp dried oregano

Ø 1 sprig fresh rosemary, fronds only chopped

Ø 1 large basil leaf, torn

Ø ½ tsp red pepper flakes

Ø ¾ tsp salt

Ø ½ tsp black pepper

Ø 8 oz shiitake mushrooms, chopped

Ø ½ cup Parmesan Romano cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Spray a glass baking dish, 9 x 13 size, with non-stick spray.

In a bowl, mix the cottage cheese, ricotta, ½ of the mozzarella, parsley, Italian seasoning. Set aside.

Cook the pasta al dente – about 2 min. less than what it says on the pkg. Drain.

Heat the oil over med. heat in the pot that you just cooked the pasta in (saves on having to wash more pans) and then add the onion. Cook about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, sauce, oregano, rosemary, basil, pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Cook at a simmer for 10 more minutes. Turn off heat and add the cottage cheese mixture plus the mushroom pieces.

Turn into the prepared baking dish. Top with the rest of the mozzarella and the Parmesan cheese. Bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy the crispy noodles and cheese on top first. Then dig in to some AWESOME creamy, cheesy, tomato sauce coated noodles and ‘shrooms.

A really good pasta dish.  Lots of flavor but WAY too big for the two of us. I should have cut the ingredients in half.   Here’s an idea:  Make the entire dish and you’ve got one delicious party pasta plate to put out for the Super Bowl!