recipe of the week: pasta pie

does anyone else get bored of their normal fall-back plan for a quick dinner? i do. one of my usual fall backs is pasta and red sauce. it's quick, it's healthy and it always tastes good, but sometimes it gets boring. i had a flashback to a delicious dish of my past - the "pasta pie" - from metro pizza back home and decided to recreate it to spice up my usual pasta and red sauce. it's definitely a carbo-load so balance out the rest of your day with lots of lean protein and veggies.

pasta pie

8 servings

1/2 recipe easy pizza dough from here

16 oz penne pasta, cooked as per directions

your favorite pasta sauce

1/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

grated cheese (i used mozerella and a little bit of parmesan)

meat optional - (like ground turkey or some chicken)

1. when done rising, split in half and roll out each half thin and into the shape of a 13x9 in glass baking dish.

2. combine pasta, sauce and cheeses in a large bowl and stir until combined

3. lay one half of your pasta into the bottom of the baking dish (greased). lay the pasta/sauce/cheese mixture onto the dough and then top with the other half of the rolled out dough.

4. bake in the oven at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until crust is done.