With so much travel this month, it’s been hard for me to keep to my new year’s resolution and cook as often as I should. Even going to the grocery store is a commitment! But I braved the cold, evaded the crowds, and cooked my heart out, getting back in the groove of “whipping something up”.

I’m still eating the leftovers of this delicious dish. What a great recipe to get me back into cooking.

ITALIAN FLAG BAKED PASTA

From NOW AND AGAIN by Julia Turshen

Ingredients: Everything I like to eat all together, with the added bonus of iron in the spinach.

First step is to make the sauce. She reminds you to start boiling the pasta water here, which is a great tip since it takes forever to boil water sometimes. Might as well have it ready to go.

Cook the turkey with lots of salt and pepper until it’s browned and cooked through.

Add garlic, crushed tomatoes, and basil stems and let simmer away. I was confused by the basil stems, but she said to remove them later, so it didn’t matter in the end and I think it gave the sauce an extra herbaceous kick.

While the sauce is simmering away, prepare the cheesy green sauce.

Put the frozen spinach with chopped basil and add sour cream, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella, and salt.

Technically, Julia said to defrost the spinach, but I don’t think it fully defrosted before I made the sauce and it still turned out ok.

Make the pasta one minute less than the time required. Then add it to the red sauce.

From here, it’s about assembly! One third pasta goes in the pan, then one half green sauce, one third pasta, other half green sauce, last third of pasta.

Top the last layer with cheese and pop it in the oven to melt and brown.

And voila! All the flavors of a lasagna and half the effort.

Pretty amazing to eat hot out of the oven, and as Julia says, wonderful cold out of the fridge the next day, too.

Final thoughts: Can’t wait to make this one again. So excited to still have leftovers in the fridge.