Cottage Cheese Baked Pasta

THIS RECIPE. My goodness, you guys. Should you like baked, tacky pasta that warms your stomach and soul, this cottage cheese baked pasta will seize your coronary heart. We’re making it on repeat in our home. Actually. Like each time we run out of leftovers, we whip up one other batch immediately as a result of it’s so splendidly scrumptious and the proper reheat-and-eat leftovers I really like consuming for lunch or a busy weeknight dinner.

I first started enjoying round with this recipe after we had been out of lasagna noodles and I needed to make a batch of the excessive protein cottage cheese lasagna recipe we love a lot. I figured that if we preferred a lasagna recipe with cottage cheese a lot we might probably love a baked pasta recipe with cottage cheese as nicely so I performed round a bit and the top end result was a pasta lover’s delight… and a protein lover’s dream. This recipe boasts 42 grams of protein per serving (and eight grams of fiber!) and is simply as splendidly satisfying as it’s scrumptious.

Cottage Cheese Baked Pasta

Whereas the flavour and excessive protein content material of this pasta are apparent highlights of this recipe, the benefit of this dish is one other one. It comes collectively shortly — particularly if you happen to take the time to prep a couple of issues forward — and your total home will scent like marinara heaven because it bakes and bubbles up within the oven. It makes use of elements we regularly have already got available in our home, together with pasta, jarred marinara sauce (shout out to Rao’s, ceaselessly the perfect!), floor beef and cottage cheese.

What Is Cottage Cheese

Cottage cheese is a dairy product constructed from milk curds, which type when an acid curdles milk and cream. Cottage cheese begins as milk after which enzymes or dwell, lively cultures are added so as to convert the milk into sugars, or lactic acid. The lactic acid separates the curds from the whey. The strong curds are then sliced into bite-sized items and packaged, which is why you’ll find massive and small curd cottage cheese. (If the curds hassle you from a texture standpoint, I like to recommend mixing them up, because the result’s a thick virtually ricotta-like cheese!) The flavour of cottage cheese is comparatively gentle and it melts superbly in recipes, giving a dish creamy cheesiness with the additional advantage of an enormous ol’ enhance of protein, too!

How To Make Cottage Cheese Baked Pasta

Making a pasta bake with cottage cheese is straightforward and solely requires a couple of elements.

Components

• Cottage Cheese: You noticed that one coming, didn’t you?
• Pasta: What sort of pasta you utilize on this recipe is completely as much as you! Should you love baked ziti, use ziti! Should you flip for penne, use penne! Should you’re in search of the next protein pasta recipe, use a excessive protein pasta like chickpea pasta or this pasta I purchase on Amazon, which is my private favourite as I can’t style ANY distinction between it and common pasta however the protein content material is stellar! I really like the rigatoni pasta on this recipe most.
• Marinara Sauce: Use your favourite! I LOVE Rao’s vodka sauce.
• Floor Beef: Floor turkey additionally works nicely if you happen to favor to make use of turkey, although I favor the flavour of floor beef.
• Zucchini: This one is sneaky since you received’t style it however who doesn’t love a sneaky enhance of veggies of their meals!?
• Onion: Diced good and small.
• Italian Seasoning + Garlic Salt: For flav-ahhh! You may additionally add a sprinkle of pink pepper flakes and recent basil if you happen to like.
• Egg Whites: You’ll combine this up along with your cottage cheese.
• Olive Oil: After all.
• Mozzarella Cheese: To sprinkle on prime!

Directions

And right here’s easy methods to make our favourite cottage cheese baked pasta:

Step 1

Cook dinner pasta in keeping with bundle instructions, however cut back the cooking time a little bit bit so pasta is al dente/very barely agency and never too tender. Drain and put aside.

Preheat oven to 350 levels.

Step 2

In a big pot, warmth olive oil on medium-low warmth. Add onion and garlic and sauté for a few minutes. Add zucchini and cook dinner till it begins to melt and onion is translucent.

Step 3

Add floor beef and cook dinner till beef is not pink, stirring recurrently. Sprinkle with garlic salt and stir. Pour marinara sauce into the pot and permit to simmer when you create the cottage cheese combination.

Step 4

In a VERY massive bowl, mix cottage cheese, egg whites and Italian seasoning.

Step 5

Add marinara floor beef combination to the big bowl of cottage cheese and stir. Gently stir within the cooked pasta.

Step 6

Pour pasta combination right into a 9×13 baking dish. High with the shredded mozzarella.

Step 7

Bake uncovered for roughly half-hour and luxuriate in!

This recipe can also be unbelievable as leftovers. Merely retailer in an air-tight container (these glass containers are my favourite), reheat if you’re able to eat it and luxuriate in. Typically I’ll add in one other scoop of cottage cheese once I’m reheating leftovers for added cheesiness. It melts proper in, tastes nice and provides one other little enhance of protein, although this recipe is already protein packed!

Cottage Cheese Baked Pasta