Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I would have linked to this recipe from Kirsty Carre had I been able to find it on www.thewest.com.au, but it wasn’t there. It was published in ‘Eating In’ section of The West on Thursday 1 August, and I made it on Friday night. There was WAY more than the two of us could eat (I noticed it ‘Serves 6’ later…), so I packaged some up into takeaway containers and froze it for future ready-to-heat meals. As per usual, I adapted the recipe a bit 😉

I’d like to thank Kirsty for this recipe — it’s a winner and SO easy to make. And it tastes darned good too! And no fiddling about with lasagne sheets and layers 😉

Serves 6

• 1 x 250 g frozen spinach, thawed
• 2 cups ricotta, drained (you could get away with 1 cup)
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 500 g spinach and ricotta ravioli (I substituted spinach and ricotta agnolotti and it was fine)
• 2 tbsp olive oil (I just used a tiny squirt)
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped (we don’t eat garlic, so I added 3 chopped dried chillis instead)
• 700 g bottle tomato passata
• 1/2 cup grated mozzarella

1. Squeeze out as much moisture as possible from the thawed spinach and set aside in a small bowl. In another bowl, mix the ricotta and parmesan together; if it’s too thick, add a splash of milk to thin it a little. It should be like a paste, NOT runny.
2. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and add the pasta and cook for the required time.
3. Gently heat the oil in a deep-sided frypan (one with a heatproof handle if you decide to put this under the grill). Add the garlic (and/or chilli), then the tomato passata. Stir.
4. Drain the pasta, scatter it over the sauce and lightly stir it through the sauce.
5. Top with the spinach, then the ricotta/parmesan mix, then the mozzarella.
6. EITHER: put the lid on the frypan, turn the heat down to low and cook until the cheese melts on top; OR place the frypan under the grill for a few minutes to melt and lightly brown the mozzarella.