Yesterday despite the snow we ventured downtown to our favorite place to shop for kitchen essentials and pantry staples. I also love to shop the Strip District for inspiration on what to make the following week. Lucky it was Saturday and one of our favorite bakeries & cafe’s was open. I was checking out the showcase and the owner had made an Italian Meat Pie. This inspired me to look for a meat pie recipe. I did not find exactly what I was looking for; however, stumbled across a recipe by One Little Project at a Time, Three Cheese Italian Rigatoni Pie that intrigued me. This will not stop me from researching to find a pastry meat pie recipe, so be on the lookout for more details in the upcoming week.
I slightly modified the original recipe with the link from of above to incorporate some lighter ingredients and add additional seasoning. This pie turns out picture perfect and ridiculously delicious (Husband approved)!
- 1 pound Rigatoni
- 3 cups; plus 1/3 cup of homemade pasta sauce or your favorite store bought sauce
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil,
- 1 pound extra lean ground beef (93/7)
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (grated)
- 1/4 cup Romano Locatelli (grated)
- 1/4 cup Asiago cheese (grated)
- One 16 oz container of fat free cottage cheese (fat free ricotta cheese) or my family always likes a combo of both
- 1 large egg
- 1-1/2 cups of 2% mozzarella cheese
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 1 tsp of Pasta Sprinkle or Italian seasoning
- Cook the Rigatoni in a large pot of boiling water. Cook the pasta according to the package but decrease the time by Cook it about 1 minute. Drain the pasta and rinse under cold water.
- Toss pasta with 1 Tablespoon of oil to prevent it from sticking. Then add the parmesan cheese, asiago cheese, and romano and mix until the cheese is evenly distributed. Set aside.
- Spray a large skillet preferably nonstick with cooking spray, sprinkle meat with salt and pepper, brown the ground beef on medium heat. Remove any excess liquid once cooked and no signs of pink meat.
- Add 3 cups of pasta sauce to the meat and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let it cool for 10 minutes.
- Mix together the container of cottage cheese and the egg & pasta sprinkle.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cooking spray a 9 inch springform pan and place the remaining 1/3 cup of pasta sauce on the bottom of the springform pan. Spread the sauce evenly.
- Take the cooked rigatoni and stand each piece up on its end in the pan. Continue until the whole pan is tightly packed. You will feel like you don’t have enough noodles but you will.
- Pour the cottage cheese mixture over the rigatoni and spread evenly over all the noodles. Shake the pan and gently pound the pan on the counter to get some of the cottage cheese to venture down in the noodle vessels.
- Pour the meat mixture over top and spread evenly over the noodles. Use your a straw to poke the meat and cheese mixture down into the noodles. You can also gently pound the pan on the counter and shake this helps as well.
- Bake, uncovered, the beautiful pie for 15 minutes at 400F.
- Remove from the oven and top with the mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for another 15 minutes at 400F.
- Let stand on wire rack for 10 minutes then run a plastic knife (this will prevent scratching of your pan) around the edge of the pan to help remove the springform pan.
Enjoy!
