Baked Mini Bowties

A quick meat sauce and some pasta was one of two meals I ate frequently during undergrad (the other was stir fry). I loved it because not only was it quick and needed few ingredients, but it made plenty of leftovers for subsequent lunches and dinners. Somehow I have less free time the past four years of graduate school, yet I cook many more things that take much more time than before. Go figure.

This dish I found from Kristin from Iowa Girl Eats, inspired by Sbarro. To me it is a pumped up version of the simple meat sauce and pasta. Now it has cheese and is baked! Even though this only takes 20 minutes longer (because of baking time), I wanted to eat my arm by the time it was done. But I had just been at spin class for 1.5 hours and food was the only thing I could think about. This may come as a surprise but this was much more satisfying than my arm could’ve ever been. And I made it with piccolini farfalle! They are just too darn cute to not enjoy.

BAKED MINI BOWTIES

Serves 8

Ingredients:

16 oz. (1 box) piccolini farfalle (mini bowtie) pasta

3/4 lb. 90/10 ground beef

Garlic salt

Pepper

1 cup shredded and 1 cup sliced* fresh Mozzarella cheese, divided

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, divided

1 jar marinara sauce

Fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Cook pasta in boiling, salted water until just under al dente (it will continue to cook in the oven.) Drain and return to the pot.
2. Meanwhile, season ground beef with garlic salt & pepper and brown in a pan over medium-high heat. Drain and add to the pasta.
3. Add 1 cup shredded Mozzarella, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, and marinara sauce to the pasta and beef. Mix to combine.
4. Pour into a non-stick sprayed 9×13″ pan and top with sliced Mozzarella and remaining Parmesan.
5. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Sprinkle with parsley.

*You can use all shredded Mozzarella, I just thought it looked pretty to have globs of melted Mozzarella on top.

Source:  Iowa Girl Eats