This week I’ve been sharing some of my tips and recipes in aid of Salt Awareness Week. This year is all about MORE flavour, LESS salt and this recipe certainly delivers that!
If you’ve seen the “baked feta” TikTok trend on social media, Dr Pippa Gibson has this brilliant lower salt version using ricotta cheese which is much lower in salt than Feta. Check out my blog on cheese for babies to see a comparison of lots of different popular cheese options.
This Ricotta Pasta Bake Recipe is a super simple family dinner recipe that can be easily prepared with baby on the hip! It’s prepped in 10 minutes with everything baked (including the pasta) in one tray. There’s minimal mess leaving time for busy parents to tend to other things whilst it cooks away in the oven.
Let’s get to it…
Serves around 2 adults 2 babies
Ingredients
- 250g pasta with a cooking time of 10-12 minutes
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 550ml boiling water
- 400g cherry tomatoes
- 2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped*
- 1 tub (250g) ricotta
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp fresh or frozen basil**
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/ 200°C convection
- In a large oven-proof dish (minimum 1.8l capacity) combine the pasta, oregano and 550ml boiling water. Mix to disperse the oregano evenly.
- Top with garlic and cherry tomatoes, leaving a space in the centre for the ricotta.
- Turn the ricotta out into the centre and drizzle the oil over everything.
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes.
- Remove from the oven1, top with the basil and mix everything thoroughly, crushing the tomatoes and the ricotta to make the sauce.
- Option to mash the pasta for babies if needed, or to serve as pasta finger food.
Enjoy!
Click to Watch My Video here!
Note:
*Option to use 1 tsp frozen garlic or 1 tsp garlic paste
**Option to use 1 tsp dried basil with the dried oregano
1For young babies peel the tomatoes once cooked before mixing.
Check out my blog on SALT for babies & toddlers for more info on recommendations & how to keep little one’s intakes low.
