When homestyle cooking, comfort food, and healthy ingredients come together like this Mushroom & Spinach Pasta Bake did, it’s a total celebration in our household!
Creamy, cheesy, savory, wholesome pasta coated in a thick, flavorful sauce on a rainy spring night. That’s pretty much how this whole thing went down! The kitchen was filled with the most amazing comfort food smells. I was putting this recipe together and Cody was happily (errr…maybe hungrily) helping me snap photos of the recipe. And of course there were lots of dance breaks to old-timey Italian music in between cooking. I don’t mean romantic classy dancing, I mean like getting down to opera. If you follow us on Snapchat (
: jaroflemons), you may have seen evidence of this on Thursday night when I made the recipe!
That’s what I love about homestyle cooking. There are no expectations, no pressure. You almost can’t mess it up! It comes from a place of joy, comfort, and freedom. And while I’m not the type of person that would necessarily tell you that the secret ingredient in this Mushroom & Spinach Pasta Bake is “love”, I do think that homestyle cooking is all about the people you’re surrounded by. In my case, that was Cody as he danced away to Opera and old Italian music. Maybe dancing is the secret ingredient! 
For this recipe, I used a new Ragu Homestyle Thick and Hearty Mushroom Sauce that I have no words for. Actually, that’s a lie. I have lots of words. Such as I COULDN’T STOP EATING IT OUT OF THE JAR while I was making this recipe! If that’s not homestyle cooking, I don’t know what is. Everyone knows you can’t have real homestyle cooking without licking the spoon, eating while you cook, or in this case devouring the jar of pasta sauce before it even makes it to the pasta. Right??? Do yourself a favor and head over to Ragu’s homepage to learn about their new amazing homestyle sauces (and more Ragu pasta sauce recipes)!
Here’s the amazing recipe for this Mushroom & Spinach Pasta Bake!
- 2.5 cups whole wheat penne pasta
- 2 cups Ragu Homestyle Thick and Hearty Mushroom Sauce
- 1 tsp garlic
- 2 cups mushrooms
- 2 cups spinach/arugula mix
- 4 oz. fresh mozzarella
- Italian seasoning to taste
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook the pasta according to directions. Rinse with cold water and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the pasta, sauce, garlic, mushrooms, and lettuce. Mix until everything is evenly coated.
- Pour the mixture into a baking dish and top with fresh mozzarella. Season to taste.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Serve hot and enjoy!