Big-Batch Baked Ziti with White Beans

Ingredients

• 1 lb Whole wheat pasta (dry), ziti or penne
• 3 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Yellow onion, diced
• 5 cloves Garlic, minced
• ½ tsp Red pepper flakes
• 2 tbsp Tomato paste
• 1 can Crushed tomatoes, no salt added
• 2 cans Cannellini beans, canned no-salt-added, drained and rinsed
• 5 cups Baby spinach
• 15 oz Part-skim ricotta
• 8 oz Part-skim mozzarella, shredded
• 6 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 Eggs (large)
• ½ cup Fresh basil, torn
• 1 tsp Dried oregano
• 1 tsp Kosher salt

Method

1. Boil the pasta 2 minutes short of al dente — it finishes in the oven, and fully cooked pasta here turns to mush.
2. Cook the onion in oil 7 minutes; add garlic, oregano and pepper flakes for a minute; fry the tomato paste 90 seconds until it darkens.
3. Add crushed tomatoes, one can of beans and the salt. Simmer 10 minutes. Blend the second can of beans with 1/2 cup water until smooth and stir it in — that is the creaminess, without cream.
4. Wilt the spinach into the sauce. Mix the ricotta with the egg, half the parmesan and plenty of pepper.
5. Layer in a 9x13: sauce, pasta, dollops of ricotta, mozzarella. Repeat. Finish with the rest of the parmesan.
6. Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes covered, 15 uncovered until bubbling and browned. Rest 15 minutes before cutting, and scatter basil over.

Notes

✨ The restaurant touch

Rest it a full 15 minutes. Baked pasta cut straight from the oven slumps onto the plate; rested, it holds a square.

🧒 For the kids

This is the meal children request. If yours object to spinach, blend it into the sauce with the beans and it vanishes.

🌿 From the garden

Basil, and tomatoes if you cook down your own sauce in September.

🥡 Leftovers

5 days. Freezes 3 months baked or unbaked.

Per serving

Computed from USDA FoodData Central values. A planning tool, not medical advice.