One of the most enjoyable aspects of cooking is the creativity it can unleash. Missing a particular ingredient for a recipe? Swap it out with something else. Same thing for an ingredient that you might not care for. Substitution can take the cook down many roads.
Another form of creativity is taking a random assortment of ingredients and transforming them into an enticing dish, whether or not it absolutely adheres to the written recipe.
Then too there is the selection of ingredients themselves. I enjoy meandering the aisles of market stands, ready to be inspired by some vegetable I see that might not have been on the original list but just speaks to me. Or trolling the grocery store shelves in search of some exotic addition to the dish I plan to make.
So, in the name of creativity, on a cold, blustery Fall day I decided to follow the inner Muse and improvise. The main goal was to create some kind of tummy-warming baked pasta dish but the path to creating that was not clear. First step of course was to browse the recipe collection. Here I found several such recipes, each with an appealing aspect. So rather than stick to a single approach, I decided to merge the best of each into a single concoction, with pasta as the key ingredient and topped it with roasted cherry tomatoes, rather than some heavy tomato sauce.
Then it was simply a matter of adding complimentary elements such as spinach which I love.
Hope everyone will enjoy as much as my friends to whom I delivered individual portions for dinner that night.
Pasta, Chicken, Spinach, Ricotta Casserole
Ingredients
1 box rigatoni, boiled ~7 min or al dente
4-5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into small pieces
1-2 leeks, diced or 1 bunch scallions, diced
3 garlic cloves, diced
½ lb cherry tomatoes pus 1 16 oz can diced tomatoes, drained with juice set aside
6 oz baby spinach, rinsed and drained
6-8 oz fresh ricotta at room temperature
8 oz shredded mozzarella 2
2 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
Spices including salt & pepper, garlic & onion powder
Preparation (Don’t worry – it’s simple)
Prepare cherry tomatoes by cutting off stem end and placing whole tomatoes in near boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Drain, let cool and slip off skins. Set aside.
Dust chicken pieces with salt & pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and set aside.
Saute leeks in a skillet with 2 tbs butter till softened. Remove from skillet & set aside. Saute chicken pieces in same skillet with additional butter for ~ 2 minutes. Set aside.
Saute tomatoes both fresh and canned in same skillet, adding juice as needed for loose consistency. Add leeks and stir to combine.
Assemble dish
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Spray 10-inch oblong cooking dish with non-stick spray. Place 1/3 rigatoni as bottom layer. Place ½ of chicken on top then layer in ½ spinach and 1/3 tomato sauce. Layer in some of ricotta and sprinkle with mozzarella.
Repeat with another layer. Then finish with rigatoni topped with lots of mozzarella and dot with ricotta.
Bake uncovered 40~ (or more) minutes till bubbling in center. Remove from oven and let cool a bit. Serve warm with salad on the side.
