This healthy, veggie-filled pasta bake is incredibly easy and is great for a quick weeknight dinner. The chard stems..yes you can eat the stems + leaves lighten up this dish and can easily be picked out by picky eaters! I actually stuffed small pieces of chard into the center of the rigatoni to hide them from my kids, and they happily ate them without knowing what I had done. If you are feeling up for it, you can make my 20-Minute Marinara, but store-bought sauce is fine if you need to save time.
Ingredients
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 lb Swiss chard (about 6 large leaves, stems finely chopped + leaves roughly chopped)
- 10 oz rigatoni pasta, or pasta of your choice
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, plus more for topping
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
- 2 cups tomato sauce- store-bought or my 20-Minute Sauce (linked in description)
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Fill a large pot with salted water and bring to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions, reducing the time by a minute or two since the pasta will continue cooking while it bakes in the oven.
- Heat a large cast iron or oven safe pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and swiss chard stems and sauté for 2 minutes, then add the leaves and sauté until wilted, about 3 minutes. Season with salt (about ¼ tsp)
- Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce (if making home-made)
- In the skillet that you sautéed the chard in, mix the cooked pasta, chard, cheeses and tomato sauce. Taste and add salt if necessary.
- Sprinkle extra shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese on top (if you like). Bake for 15 minutes. Broil for the last 1-2 minutes if you would like the cheese topping more brown and bubbling.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh chopped basil.
