Baked pasta

Baked spaghetti, penne, whatever you want was pretty easy and not that adventurous, but we had it last night (delicious!) and I thought I'd include a summary for people like my little brother who is, apparently, still eating cardboard.

Cook 1lb of pasta in a pot of salted water. Aim to cook it for ~2min less than the box says for al dente because it'll finish cooking in the oven. If you want to use raviolli, use 2lbs and cook until they float to the surface.

Make up a basic marinara sauce with onions, garlic, olive oil, 2 cans of tomatoes (perhaps, one crushed, one diced), salt & pepper and the italian herbs of your choice. Last night I used thyme and oregano, and threw in a dash of red pepper flakes. The sauce should be runnier than normal. Simmer for about 25 min until it's about 5.5 cups. Not important to be precise.

Throw everything together in a 9x13 baking dish, sprinkle with parm and mozz cheese and toss in a 425 degree oven for, oh, 15-25 min, until cheese gets nice and brown.

Ta-DA!

If I hadn't been so darn hungry, I might have tried adding some sauteed artichoke hearts, thrown in with the pasta and marinara before baking. Chris and I have recently discovered that sauteed artichoke hearts, so they're good and brown, go very very well with cheese.

If the roads don't resemble a skating rink (we got about 1/2in of sleet and freezing rain yesterday), I'm going to the winter farmer's market and then to the grocery store, so hopefully I'll get to try some more new things this week. I'm really looking forward to the end of winter and the beginning of my daffodils; I just hope this spring won't be like last year's, where it warmed up a little, but stayed really rather cold to June and all the spring produce at the farmer's market was weird. It was so disappointing!