A couple of weeks ago, a coworker friend of mine brought me in some of his homemade lasagna and it was incredibly delicious. It took me a few meals to finish it as I like to eat pasta sparingly; however, when it was gone, it left me yearning for more, so I decided to make some and improvise with the ingredients I had on hand, which included pennette pasta. If you’re not familiar with pennette, they’re simply a shorter and thinner version of penne pasta, and have ends that are cut at an angle. I threw this together without doing a lot of measuring (and made a small serving), but am providing my best guesstimate on the amounts I used. To be honest, I was a little nervous how it would turn out, but much to my delight, it was truly scrumptious. 

Ingredients

• 3/4 container (around 11 oz.) of ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup 2% mozzarella, shredded
• 1 tsp. fresh basil, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/8 tsp. garlic 
• 1/8 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 2 cups pennette pasta
• 2-3 cups prepared marinara or pasta sauce
• 1/4 cup shredded parmesan
• 1/4 cup Mexican Style Four Cheese Blend

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add pasta, cook for 8 minutes (they won’t be completely done but they finish cooking in the oven).
3. Drain and set aside.
4. Mix together ricotta and egg, then add mozzarella, parmesan, basil, oregano, garlic and salt.
5. Spray a small baking dish with Pam (I used a small 5″ x 7″).
6. Put a layer of marinara in the bottom of your pan, sprinkle some red pepper flakes and then 1/3 of the noodles (lay them flat), spread the ricotta cheese mixture on top of the noodles, put a layer of sauce on top of the cheese, add pepper flakes, top with 1/2 of noodles, repeat process again, and finish with remaining sauce and the Mexican 4 Cheese (there should be 3 layers).
7. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover for the last 5 minutes of cooking.
8. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.