Baked Penne with Spinach, Ricotta & Fontina
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This easy vegetarian pasta bake gives you all the flavor of classic spinach and cheese cannelloni without the fuss.
This vegetarian pasta bake is a quick and easy riff on classic spinach and ricotta cannelloni. Instead of stuffing traditional pasta shells, I toss penne pasta in a creamy sauce made with spinach, basil, and ricotta. After topping the dish with two flavorful cheeses, I bake it until golden and bubbly. To ensure a smooth and creamy texture, I add mascarpone (or cream cheese) to the sauce, which eliminates any potential graininess that can sometimes occur with ricotta-based sauces. While the pasta bakes, I usually toss a big Italian salad to complete the meal.
you’ll need to make Baked penne with spinach, ricotta & fontina
how to make Baked penne with spinach, ricotta & fontina
To begin, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the penne. Cook until al dente, about 9 minutes. The pasta will continue to cook in the oven, so you want it a bit underdone.
Drain the pasta, then place it back in the pan and set aside.
Meanwhile, drain the spinach and squeeze as dry as possible. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine the dry spinach, basil, ricotta, mascarpone (or cream cheese), half-and-half cream, 1 cup fontina, 3 tablespoons Parmigiano Reggiano, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Process until puréed.
Add the spinach mixture to the pasta.
Stir to combine.
Transfer to a baking dish.
Top with the remaining fontina and Pecorino Romano cheese.
Bake until the pasta is bubbling and the top is golden in spots, about 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes, then serve.
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Baked Penne with Spinach, Ricotta & Fontina
This easy vegetarian pasta bake gives you all the flavor of classic spinach and cheese cannelloni without the fuss.
Ingredients
- 1 pound penne
- 1 (10-oz) package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
- ½ cup packed basil leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
- 4 oz (½ cup) mascarpone cheese (or cream cheese)
- 2 cups half-and-half
- 6 oz (2 cups) grated fontina or whole milk mozzarella, divided
- 5 tablespoons finely grated Pecorino Romano (or Parmigiano Reggiano), divided
- 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Lightly oil a 9 x 13-inch ceramic baking dish.
- Cook the penne in boiling salted water until al dente, about 9 minutes. (It will cook more in the oven so you don’t want it completely cooked.) Drain and rinse under cold water, then place the pasta back in the pan and set aside.
- In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine the spinach, basil, ricotta, mascarpone (or cream cheese), half-and-half, 1 cup of the fontina (or mozzarella), 3 tablespoons of the Pecorino Romano (or Parmigiano Reggiano), garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Process until puréed.
- Add the spinach mixture to the pasta and stir to combine. Transfer to the prepared baking dish. Top with the remaining fontina and Parmigiano Reggiano. Bake until the pasta is bubbling and the top is golden in spots, about 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes, then serve.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (6 servings)
- Calories: 692
- Fat: 34 g
- Saturated fat: 20 g
- Carbohydrates: 65 g
- Sugar: 7 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 31 g
- Sodium: 956 mg
- Cholesterol: 112 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Another winner Jenn! I made this tonight for my two teenage vegetarian grandchildren and they both loved it. As did my wife and myself. Thanks again for sharing your wonderful recipes!
I have one daughter that is vegetarian but boys that definitely are not. This penne dish works for all of them. I often make it when I buy a giant container of fresh spinach instead of using frozen.
This is one of my favorite recipes! I tweaked it using non-fat half and half and low fat cream cheese, but other than that it was perfect. My mother, who tasted it with her nose turned up, said it was one of my favorite pasta dishes! Thanks so much!!
I made this recipe as written, no substitutions. My kids were very skeptical as it was “green” and no meat. We loved it! This will definitely be put in to our dinner rotation. Thank you for another amazing recipe!
I needed a casserole dish for a parrot conference pot luck. I used this recipe as a backbone! I did not have ricotta, or fontina, or spinach. I boiled ziti, then blanched fresh broccoli, sautéed a large cubed chicken breast-stirred them in a pot and added 2 jars of alfredo sauce-poured it into an ungreased 13×9 glass dish and topped it with 2 cups of shredded mozzarella! Baked for 30 minutes and it was an enormous hit!! Even the parrots loved it!!
This is the greatest review in the history of online recipes!! Hahaha!!! I didn’t think the recipe was very good but I’m super happy that some parrots enjoyed a totally unrelated dish.
LOL…I love when people review a recipe by posting a completely different one.
I would make this over and over again. What a delicious dish. It was so creamy. There was leftovers of this dish and that didn’t last long. That’s when you know people really enjoyed it. Thanks again for another great recipe.
Words cannot convey how much I enjoyed this dish. It was incredible! I had gruyere, so I used it instead of fontina, so I’ll have to try the real recipe some day! Regardless, it was fantastic!
Can this dish be made the day/night before up until the baking? Any thoughts on this?
This can be assembled up to a day ahead. A few readers have commented, however, that they prepared it ahead and thought it turned out a little dry; to avoid that, you may want to cover it with foil for at least part of the baking time. Hope you enjoy!
Tasty recipe & easy to make. Definitely a keeper for our dinner guests who are “Vegetarian” friendly. Thank you, as always…
Wonderful Recipe. Easy to make with an elegant result. We made roughly as directed but upped the cheese content. Everything is better with more cheese.