You have to try Dennis’ Sicilian Mac n’ Cheese

It isn’t officially Sicilian, but the idea came from a Sicilian version of Lasagna that we got from one of our trips to the island.

Recipes vary from region to region in Italy and even with those regions, they can vary from province to province. This lasagna recipe came from the Province of Trapani on the eastern side of the island.

It didn’t contain tomato sauce, no meat, and plenty of spinach and a variety of cheeses. So, we took this Sicilian version on that famous dish and married it with a very famous American dish with a couple of twists.

Every time I’ve made this dish for people, it goes in minutes with no leftovers. It’s easy and delicious, so give it a try!

You’ll need short rigatoni, ricotta cheese, spinach, a 4-cheese mix of provolone, parmesan, fontina & asiago.

Sautee a bag of fresh spinach in a tbsp. of olive oil. You can also use 1 small box of frozen chopped spinach.

Set cooked spinach aside.

Cook one full box of pasta one minute past al dente as indicated on the instructions on the box.

Reserve a half cup of pasta water for later.

Use a tbsp of olive oil to grease a baking pan.

Pour in cooked pasta.

Add cooked spinach.

Spoon in contents of one 15 oz. container of ricotta cheese.

Pour on 4-cheese mix.

Pour in the half cup of reserved pasta water, salt to taste and mix thoroughly.

Sprinkle the top of the pasta casserole with grated parmesan cheese.

Then sprinkle breadcrumbs on top of the pasta.

Preheat over at 350 degrees.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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