Okay, I'll admit it. I'm lazy sometimes. Like today. I spent all of yesterday at an airshow, and have been doing mostly nothing today as I recover from all the excitement yesterday (hey, it was the first time I'd seen the Blue Angels perform in person). So today I wanted to make something simple... and quick... to match my lazy day.
And this is what I found. This is a simple, throw-it-in-and-cook-it recipe. The only complicated thing was dicing the onion, and I have a really cool kitchen tool for that. The only downside to me was the recipe calls for Ricotta cheese. I'm not a fan of Ricotta, but most of the suggested substitutes for it didn't sound much more appealing, so I used it. So if you like Ricotta, this recipe is right up your alley... and if you don't, it's not too bad (but I'm working on a suitable substitute anyway).
Adapted from The Recipe Well
A quick dump-and-go meal that has all the great tastes of lasagna. Perfect for a lazy day when all you want to do is get something on the table.
Adapted from The Recipe Well
- 1 lb Italian sausage or lean ground beef (see notes)
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 5 clove garlic, minced
- 3 cup chicken broth or stock
- 1 jar marinara sauce (24 oz)
- 1 can petite diced tomatoes (15 oz)
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 16 oz short pasta (see notes)
- 1 cup Ricotta cheese
- 1 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
- fresh parsley (for garnish)
- grated Parmesan cheese (for garnish)
Servings 8
Serving Size about 2 cups
- Amount Per Serving
- % Daily Value *
- Total Fat 18.6g29%
- Saturated Fat 5.8g29%
- Cholesterol 47mg16%
- Sodium 1271mg53%
- Potassium 239mg7%
- Total Carbohydrate 55.7g19%
- Dietary Fiber 4.4g18%
- Sugars 9.7g
- Protein 22.5g45%
- Calcium 121 mg
- Iron 4 mg
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Notes
- This dish can be prepared using ground beef instead of Italian sausage. The Nutritional Info is based on using Italian sausage.
- "Short pasta" is a term that describes pastas that are not long string-like pieces such as spaghetti or linguine. Examples of short pastas are:
- Cavatappi (corkscrew shaped tubes)
- Farfalle (bowties, which were used in the recipe photo)
- Ziti (short straight macaroni tubes)
- Gemelli (two short lengths of tubes twisted together)
- Shells (seashell shaped)
- Adjustments from the recipe as originally posted:
- The original made 6 servings, but would have created leftover ingredients such as marinara sauce and pasta. Quantities have been adjusted slightly to make 8 servings instead.
- The original called for 1/2 teaspoon of salt. It was removed because of high sodium content in the other ingredients.
- The original called for a type of short pasta called Mafalda, which resembles miniature lasagna noodles. These are not normally found in a local grocer, so any short pasta can be substituted. When using Mafalda with the 8-serving version, use 14 ounces of pasta and increase the amount of chicken broth by 1/2 cup. This is because Mafalda absorbs more liquid than other pastas, and the resulting dish will be very dry without these adjustments.
Keywords:
Instant Pot, Italian sausage, marinara, lasagna, Mozzarella, Ricotta