Skillet Baked Stuffed Rigatoni
February 17th, 2013
My sister-in-law Natalie bought me a skillet last month. A real, old-fashioned cast iron skillet. Natalie knows about this stuff since she is from the south and still cooks with her grandmother’s skillets.
I’m excited to use this thing. A lot. I already roasted chicken in it and have made this cornbread a couple times. But now I am ready to start branching out and trying to make all kinds of stuff. Like this Skillet Baked Stuffed Rigatoni.
I am taking rigatoni pasta and stuffing it with a mixture of ricotta and goat cheese. Then I take those cute little stuffed noodles and made them bathe in tomato sauce.
Then I poured more over the top. Then sprinkled them with parmesan. Then I baked them up until they were a little crispy around the edges.
This is a perfect weeknight dinner. Because you can assemble it early in the day and stick it the fridge as is in the pan, and then baked it right before dinner.
I like to serve a vegetarian dinner at least once a week, but this baked pasta is so good that Pete didn’t even think about the fact that there was no meat involved. I think the goat cheese really pumps up the flavor, and I love any pasta swathed in tomato sauce…
*I used a pastry bag with to plain tip to pipe the cheese into the pasta. You just insert the tip into the noodle and squeeze until it fills it up. Also, make sure that the cheese is room temperature so that it is easy to pipe.
To make this dish, this is what you do:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the rigatoni and cook to 2 minutes shy of al dente. Drain them.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the ricotta cheese and the goat cheese and stir until well combined. Season with kosher salt and black pepper.
Put the cheese mixture in a pastry bag or Ziploc and snip the end off. Pipe the room temperature cheese into the rigatoni noodles.
Pour 1 cup on the bottom of a 10” skillet. Follow that with the basil leaves.
Line up all the noodles in concentric circles, 1 layer at a time.
When all of the noodles are in the pan. Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the noodles. Sprinkle the parmesan over the top of the sauce. (if you want to refrigerate, this is the point where you would do that).
Bake the pasta about 15 minutes until the edges are getting golden and the dish is very hot.
Serve hot!
Recipe: Skillet Baked Stuffed Rigatoni
Ingredients
- -1lb rigatoni pasta
- -8 ounces ricotta cheese
- -4 ounces goat cheese
- -Kosher salt
- -Fresh black pepper
- -3 cups marinara (or good quality store bought marinara)
- -1 handful fresh basil leaves
- -½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- 2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the rigatoni and cook to 2 minutes shy of al dente. Drain them.
- 3. In a medium sized bowl, combine the ricotta cheese and the goat cheese and stir until well combined. Season with kosher salt and black pepper.
- 4. Put the cheese mixture in a pastry bag or Ziploc and snip the end off. Pipe the room temperature cheese into the rigatoni noodles.
- 5. Pour 1 cup on the bottom of a 10” skillet. Follow that with the basil leaves.
- 6. Line up all the noodles in concentric circles, 1 layer at a time.
- 7. When all of the noodles are in the pan. Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the noodles.
- 8. Sprinkle the parmesan over the top of the sauce. (if you want to refrigerate, this is the point where you would do that).
- 9. Bake the pasta about 15 minutes until the edges are getting golden and the dish is very hot.
- 10. Serve hot!
Preparation time: 20 minute(s)
Cooking time: 25 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 6
Brilliant!!! Cast iron is amazing. I inherited my mom’s and it makes the best chili ever. I use the skillet as a lid and it turns it into the most amazing slow stove top cooker.
7:29 pm on February 17th, 2013
I love it Vicki! I should make chili in mine this week!
7:36 pm on February 17th, 2013
This is just gorgeous, I loved that you piped the cheese into the pasta.
7:43 pm on February 17th, 2013
These stuffed rigatoni look so great! Super homey and comforting. Finally, a good use for pastry bags (we are a no-frosting household). :)
8:32 pm on February 17th, 2013
I love my cast iron pan!!! This looks yummy.
8:48 pm on February 17th, 2013
I am absolutely dying over thiiiiiiiiiis.
6:52 am on February 18th, 2013
Thanks Bev!!
7:07 am on February 18th, 2013
This goat cheese stuffed Rigatoni sounds so good!
7:50 am on February 18th, 2013
Now this is my kind of pasta!! Love it all Heather :) Have a great Monday! xoxo
7:53 am on February 18th, 2013
This looks amazing! Can I come over for dinner?
7:57 am on February 18th, 2013
I LOVE making and baking everything in my cast iron skillet! Something about the rustic look and feel just gives that dish a whole ‘down South’ feel :) this pasta dish looks SO comforting and it needs to be on my plate!
8:16 am on February 18th, 2013
I still don’t own a cast iron skillet (sad, I know)…think I could make this in a regular glass baking dish?
8:27 am on February 18th, 2013
What a heavenly feast!! That is one gorgeous skillet dish.
8:47 am on February 18th, 2013
Such a delightfully beautiful dish!!
9:00 am on February 18th, 2013
It’s funny how things fall out of favor. I’ve had my cast iron skillet for years and kind of forgot about it. Only in the last few months have I started using it again. I don’t think I’ll ever go back!
9:58 am on February 18th, 2013
Love the look of this skillet pasta Heather!
10:08 am on February 18th, 2013
I was wondering how you stuffed the little rigatoni! Who doesn’t like some Italian comfort food every now and then? This sounds soooo yummy.
11:46 am on February 18th, 2013
omg this looks like the best pasta dish ever! such a fun idea
2:33 pm on February 18th, 2013
Oh you are making me hungry! This looks SO good!!
2:42 pm on February 18th, 2013
This looks great, however, I was always taught to not cook tomatoes in cast iron. ‘They’re acidic and can leach iron out of the pan, leaving you with an metallic taste. You can use an enamel coated cast iron or really Pyrex would be best.
2:45 pm on February 18th, 2013
very interesting Debbie!I didn’t notice that but I will look into it. Thank you so much for the info!
3:43 pm on February 18th, 2013
This looks awesome!!
4:14 pm on February 18th, 2013
I’m totally salivating!
Love my cast iron skillet. I couldn’t do without it.
6:23 pm on February 18th, 2013
I haven’t made this in a long time but it is delicious and I also make it with other cheeses. I’ve made it with slices of American cheeses, and cut the cheese into little pieces and slip into the pasta, and you can can sprinkle some shredded cheese over the sauce and pasta if you like.
7:10 am on February 19th, 2013
Heather – this sounds sound ridiculously delicious!
8:35 am on February 19th, 2013
Debbie, I agree with your teacher, no acidic foods in cast iron. As a deep south purist, I treat my cast iron like it is cast gold. The magic of a well seasoned cast iron skillet can’t be replicated nor can it be reseasoned in a day, it takes years for the real magic to happen.
11:38 am on February 19th, 2013
That rigatoni skillet has everything I need! Cooooome to momma!
8:12 pm on February 19th, 2013
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11:57 pm on February 21st, 2013
This is looks delicious but I can definitely see myself having a tantrum piping filling into the individual rigatoni. I admire you :P
8:30 pm on February 24th, 2013
I am making this it looks very good, and not expensive to make, maybe my teenage daughter might like it also.
5:43 am on March 1st, 2013
Heather, this looks like cooking therapy for a rainy weekend (without the goat cheese, though, which is something my tastebuds simply cannot abide). I don’t use my cast iron skillet nearly enough, so thanks for the beautiful presentation which is enticing me to create such a masterpiece for those I love and cook for!
12:51 pm on March 10th, 2013
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1:30 pm on March 19th, 2013
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4:57 pm on April 9th, 2013
Culd I usse spagetti prego sac in sted of marinara sac..? Can I take the goat chese out be ok w/the ricotta or do I need to ad cream chese w/it in sted of goat chese..?
8:57 am on April 29th, 2013
Yes you can use any kind of sauce that you want! And if I was going to take out the goat cheese, I woudl probably add some cream cheese to bulk up the texture of the ricotta. However, if you go ricotta alone, make sure you season it well!
9:44 am on April 29th, 2013
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7:08 am on May 14th, 2013