Spinach Cottage Cheese Pasta

I first made this one bowl meal for two young girls I was babysitting many years ago. This soon became their favourite dish. The creaminess from the cottage cheese works well with the earthiness of the spinach. The rich tomato pasta sauce brings sweetness to this dish and the cheese topping add the delicious gooeyness.

This dish takes an hour to bake however the prep takes about ten minutes. Serves 4 Adults.

- 650 ml Tomato Pasta Sauce
- 2 x packages of frozen chopped spinach (300g each), thawed - 600g in total
- 1 box of Cannelloni Pasta
- 2 cups of Mozzarella cheese shredded
- salt and pepper to taste

* Please note, I choose to use the smaller Cannelloni pasta however, you may change the pasta in this recipe to the larger Manicotti.
You may also choose to use Cheddar Cheese instead of the creamy Mozzarella.


Tools Needed:
- 9 x 13 pan
- Strainer
- Wooden Spoon
- Medium Bowl

- Preheat the oven to 400*
- You will need a total of 600g of frozen chopped spinach for this dish.
- You will need to ensure that the spinach is completely thawed.
- Using a strainer, squeeze out as much water as you can from the spinach.
- Place the spinach into a medium bowl.

- You will need the drained thawed Spinach, Salt, Pepper and Cottage Cheese for this next step.
- Place the drained Spinach into a medium sized bowl.
- Place the Cottage Cheese to top of the Spinach.
- Add Salt and Pepper to taste.
- Mix together well.

- Using your 9 x 13 pan, box of pasta and spinach mixture, you are ready to start stuffing the pasta.
- Time to get your hands messy! (reminder . . always wash your hands before handling the food!)
- Fill each pasta tube half way then flip it over and finish filling.
- Push in both sides ensuring there are no gaps.
- Place filled tube into your baking dish.
- Continue filling the pasta tubes until the spinach mixture is gone.

- You will need your jar of pasta sauce.
- You will need to shred 2 cups of cheese, set aside.
- Pour the pasta sauce over the pasta tubes.
- Using a butter knife ensure the sauce get in between each tube.
- Spread the sauce all over the pasta until it is completely covered.
- Sprinkle the cheese over top if the sauce.

- Place your pasta into the warm oven and bake for 1 hour.
- Once cooked remove the pasta from the oven and let rest for several minutes.

- Once the pasta has time to rest, you can enjoy this great tasting dish.