Baked Ziti with Tempeh and Kale

Cheese.

Finally, victory in my quest to make baked ziti more nutritious! Protein and green vegetables outweigh the abundance of cheese, I say.

I went overly ambitious on this one, making the ricotta cheese and the tomato sauce from scratch (with tomatoes that I canned last summer). We definitely enjoyed the fresh cheese and sauce shining through, but one could make this recipe more easily by buying those ingredients.

I made the cheese first, and it was done draining by the time I had prepped everything else.

The kale was kind of an accident because the store strangely had no decent-looking spinach when I shopped, but the kale looked great. I bought boxed baby kale and steamed it on top of the pasta pot before dumping in the pasta to cook.

I had some leftover spinach, so that went in as well.

The tempeh was excellent, lightly browned with onion and garlic and then simmered in the sauce. If you do store-bought sauce, I would still take the time to brown the tempeh and let it sit in hot sauce for a while.

The Recipe:

1 box whole wheat ziti

10 oz kale (or spinach), steamed and chopped

1 package tempeh, crumbled

6 oz mozzarella cheese

6 oz ricotta cheese

1 quart tomato sauce (I made mine with onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, oregano, basil, crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, and sugar)

Cook the ziti according to instructions on the box
Brown the crumbled tempeh for 2 minutes in olive oil. If making sauce from scratch, do this with the onions and garlic as you would with ground beef.
Simmer the tempeh in tomato sauce for at least 15 minutes.
Dump the ziti into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Top with the sauce, then spread out the kale and cheeses on top, reserving some mozzarella. Gently fold ingredients together to combine. Top with reserved mozzarella.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, uncovered, then broil until the cheese browns.

The Verdict:

Overall grade: A-

Overall reason: Great comfort food. Not quite healthy enough for an A.

Time to prepare: 30 minutes, plus 30 minutes of baking

Husband quote: "You've riCOTTA try it!"

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