A super easy one pot dish, inspired by a recipe from @donnahay ‘s cookbook ‘One Pan Perfect’. One thing I’ve learned over the past summers is that courgettes grow like crazy in the summer! It starts with a little flower and in the blink of an eye you have a courgette! (Same goes for cucumbers by the way).
I only had 1 tub of ricotta, usually I would use 2 but this works fine too for a lighter version. The filling consists of courgette, Swiss chard, broccoli, ricotta, mint, lemon zest, mozzarella, parmesan cheese and some crispy smokey bacon for extra flavour.
Courgette, Broccoli, Ricotta & Mint Pasta Bake
(3 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 250 g smokey bacon, cubed (leave out to keep vegetarian of course)
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 400 g Swiss chard (spinach will work too)
- 2 courgettes, thinly sliced (with mandolin if possible)
- Broccoli florets from 1 small broccoli (see notes)
- 750 g ricotta
- 250 g mozzarella, strained and sliced
- 80 g parmesan, grated + extra to sprinkle
- Large bunch mint leaves (± 1 cup, see notes), finely chopped
- Big handful flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 300 g dried pasta of choice, I used fusilli
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 40 g pine nuts (optional)
- Olive oil
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Heat the olive oil in an oven proof skillet or frying pan and add the bacon (if not using, move on to the next step). Pan fry until crispy, ± 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside, leaving behind the oil.
To the same pan add the onions and a pinch of salt, sauté for a minute, then add the garlic. Sauté for another 2 minutes until fragrant then add the chopped Swiss chard and sauté for 1 minutes until wilted. Remove from the heat and set aside. You'll use the pan later on again.
In a large bowl add all the ingredients except the mozzarella and the courgette, mix well so all is coated.
Assemble the dish: Brush olive oil in the bottom of the oven proof skillet (or use another oven proof dish). Divide half of the mix into the bottom of the skillet you used earlier. Dived hald of the thinly sliced courgette over the top, followed by half of the mozzarella. Repeat with another layer of filling, courgette and ending with mozzarella.
Grate over some extra parmesan cheese and drizzle some olive oil over the top.
Bake in the oven for 45 - 50 minutes until golden and browned and the pasta is cooked through.
Notes
I only use the broccoli florets in this dish. Store the broccoli stems in the freezer for later use, for example in a soup or stir fry.
