Recipes – Page 33 – Seven Plates

Don’t make ordinary pasta and sauce. Take some TLC to dinner tonight and make something special, like this Rigatoni Pie. It’s a bit tedious to stack the noodles, but the extra 10 minutes of time is rewarded with the presentation.

Ingredients:

I box or rigatoni pasta

1 jar of prepared marinara sauce

1 lb of ground beef

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups of shredded mozzarella

Boil a large pot of water and add pasta. Cook until al dente. Strain in a colendar and rinse with cold water.

In a large skillet, add ground beef and cook over medium heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. When beef is cooked, pour 3/4 of the marinara sauce. Stir to combine. Remove from heat.

In a greased springform pan, take the cooled rigatoni pasta and individually stack each noodle on its end, side-by-side, until the surface of the pan is filled.

Pour ground beef mixture over the top. Add remaining marinara sauce. Top with mozzarella.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown.

Take away the pizza dough and use a flattened chicken breast to layer the toppings. Here I used pepperoni, tomato and cheese. Call it “pizza” without the crust.

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 Tbsp of vegetable oil

2 cups of prepared marinara sauce

8 sliced of pepperoni

8 slices of fresh mozzarella

dried basil for garnish

Flatten each chicken breast to 1/2″ in thickness. Transfer to a pre-heated skillet, basted with oil, and cook 3 minutes on each side or until a brown crust starts to form. Turn off heat.

Add 3-4 Tbsp of marinara sauce to each chicken breast. Place a slice of pepperoni on top. Layer a thick slice of tomato and then a slice of mozzarella. Garnish with a dash of dried basil.

Place under a broiler oven and heat until cheese starts to brown and bubble.