This baked penne, broccoli and ricotta dish is great for weeknights and potlucks. Leave the chicken sausage out to make it vegetarian.
Happy National Pasta Day, friends! In honor of today’s holiday, I have a very tasty and easy pasta dish to share with you.
I made this dish with the help of this gorgeous Lagostina Martellata Hammered Copper Pastaiola Set.
I’ve used this pot for all manner of blanching, steaming, and cooking by now (it also happens to work well as a canning pot for half pint jars!) and have taken to leaving it on the stove between uses, because I so enjoy seeing it there in all its gleaming glory.
The recipe I’m sharing with you today puts this pot to work twice. First, I use it to blanch off a bunch of chopped broccoli. Once it’s cooked, I use the same water to cook the whole wheat penne.
While the broccoli cooks, I browned some chicken sausage in a little olive oil and then drained it on a plate. Once the broccoli is bright green and tender, it gets drained and poured into the pan where the sausage had cooked.
From there, it’s a matter of building a sauce of pressed garlic and ricotta cheese. I wrap it up by adding the cooked sausage back in, along with the pasta, a healthy splash of pasta water, and a generous handful of grated parmesan cheese. Finally, it gets popped into the oven to melt the cheese and crisp the edges of the pasta.
I love having a petite pasta pot like this one in my kitchen, because it allows me to stay at the stove, rather than dripping water between the sink and the stove. I’ve long had a larger pasta pot, but rarely pulled it out because it was just too much for my regular weeknight cooking. This one is just so much more functional for my household.
Disclosure: Lagostina sent me this pasta pot to use and write about. No additional compensation was provided. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Baked Penne, Broccoli, and Ricotta
Ingredients
- 1 pound broccoli florets and stems, chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 pound chicken sausage
- 12 ounces short whole wheat pasta
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
- 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Fill a pasta pot with water and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, salt the water well and add the broccoli. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until it turns a vivid green.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the chicken sausage from its casing and brown in the pan, using a spatula to break it up into crumbles. Once it is brown, use a slotted spoon and transfer the cooked pasta onto a paper towel-lined plate.
- Tumble the cooked broccoli into the pan that had once held the sausage and reduce the heat to medium. Bring the water in the pasta pot back to a boil and add the pasta.
- Add the garlic to the broccoli, along with the ricotta cheese and the drained sausage. Stir to combine.
- When the pasta is finished cooking, drain it and pour it into the pan with the other ingredients. Stir to combine and add 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese, along with 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water.
- Season with salt and pepper, and add more pasta water, if it is too thick.
- Top with the remaining parmesan cheese. Slide the pan under the broiler to brown the top.
I would love this pot for my pasta. I would also use it for canning tomatoes and taking the peels off
What a gorgeous pot! I’d definitely use it for pasta, but probably also for soups and for canning because it’s a great size for both of those as well.
Soup, mac & cheese, steaming veggies…endless possibilities!
What wouldn’t I use it for?! We love steamed veggies and pasta, so it would get a lot of use in every day cooking. I’d also love to try it out for small batch canning. And it would likely stay out in view as decoration as it’s simply beautiful.
First and foremost, however, I’d gift it to my wife who would fall in love at first sight!
This pot is GORGEOUS!! I would use it to can in small batches–right now I’m planning a batch of Maple Bourbon Apple Butter. Have a great weekend!
Beautiful! I’d definitely use it to can smaller jars – and to admire!
Tamales during holidays and steamed veggies often!!
Not only is the pot lovely. The receipe is a winner! Very tasty and easy to make. Thanks
This is lovely! I’d use this set for cooking pasta & blanching veggies.
This looks great for making quick weeknight pasta dinners with less fuss.
Gorgeous! I would use this pot to hone my Italian-style cooking to rival that of my husband’s!
I’d love to use this pot for anything and everything…it’s almost soup season! I feel it would have a permanent place on my stove top because it’s so beautiful!
Soups.pasta,sauces.
I could cook a lot of good stuff in that lovely pot and I would love to see it setting on my stove in between recipes !!! I love the hammered look
The Lagostina Pot is beautiful and I love it. I would cook pasta dishes, and soups.
Such a beauty, I would love to use this to make pasta, blanch vegies, and pretty much do anything that requires the use of a large pot.
I would use this gorgeous pot to make a pesto pasta – using up all of the wilting greens in my fridge!
Wow! What a beautiful pot. I would use it for the obvious pasta, blanching, and steaming. Then definitely the canning. I am always looking for smaller pots for my small batch canning.
I would use it for steaming veggies from the garden or pasta (of course).
I would use this gorgeous pot mostly for cooking small batches of pasta, but could see it used for blanching veggies to freeze or peel, or making a bone broth. I’ve long wished for a pasta pot with the insert!
I think the first thing I’d do is make this! What a beautiful piece of cookware.
I just recently started investing in some quality cookware (Le Cruset), and what a difference it has made in my life! The hammered copper would look amazing hanging on the kitchen wall of my little kitchen. I have been on a big ratatouille kick recently, so I would pick up some fresh veggies at the Saturday market down the street throw in some herbs de provence and roasted garlic to make some ratatouille. There is a lovely guy I recently met and hope to invite over soon to show off my culinary skills, this pot would be much preferred to the lidless, slightly bent pot leftover from my room mate days that I’ll be using until I get around to investing in something higher quality.
Considering that my old pot constantly requires that I tighten the screws on the handles, the first thing I’ll not be making is a mess. But primarily, this looks proper for a good Irish stew: take it to the table and let everyone dive in.
Making spaghetti is my favorite pasta dish! But the recipe you posted looks yummy, too!
Oh how I would love to have this pot. We cook a lot of veggies in my house and being able to steam them would be amazing! And it is truly a beautiful pot!
I have always wanted a lot like this. Functional and beautiful. I would definitely use it for soups and pasta. I would also cook up a batch of jam in it and use it for blanching my tomatoes I can see it filled to the rim with a big batch of salsa.
I would use this pot to make pasta three nights a week and also daily to cook vegetables. I believe in the famous chef Thomas Keller’s method of cooking/blanching vegetables in plenty of salted boiling water and then placing them in a chilled water bath to stop the cooking process. You would just place the “basket” into the ice water bath.
Thank you for blogging and for the opportunity to win this pot!
For our Christmas Eve-Eve dinner (the 23rd) we will be making dinner for about 15 people. It would be great to use this copper pot to serve one of the dishes as it is beautiful – as well as to use in making the dish. Additionally it would be used for canning – love the fact it is deep enough to do 1/2-pints.
I Love copper!! This would be great for veggies, soups, sauces and of course pasta. I also like the idea of canning in it. I used to can alot years ago. I have just back into recently. Started when a friend brought me over 500 pears from her tree.
Its almost two pretty to use. But definitely for soups and long simmering stews.
My husband and I love pasta but I always struggle to find the right pot to cook it in. I love also that this pot looks really good on the stove top
I would use that pot for any number of uses, the first would be this fabulous recipe you shared!! It is so pretty it would be on my kitchen shelf, not in the pot cupboard.
What a gorgeous pot! I, too, would leave it on the stove! I certainly would be making more pasta dishes. Can’t wait to try this one! Thanks!
I would love to have the set to make the Baked Penne. The pots I have for making this recipe are really inadequate and I think the dish would;t have the flavor and texture that it would have if I used the right tools.
Pasta and soup!
Soup! It’s beautiful.
Oh I never thought of using this type of steamer/pot combo for canning…great idea for all those small recipes. I have a couple of pasta recipes that would work well here – simple comfort food.
I would use this pan to make soup a lot and steam vegetables.
I have and use the aspargus pot you recommend for canning all the time. Bet this would be equally useful…
That is quite possibly the most beautiful pot I’ve ever seen. I’d use it for pasta, of course, but I think I’d leave it on the stove all the time just so I could look at it. I’d use it for soup, and sauces, and anything and everything else, too.
I would use this pot for steaming veggies and pasta too.
I’d use it for pasta, soup… so many wonderful things. It would be beautiful at Thanksgiving! Thanks for the giveaway!
This pot makes me want to whip up a batch of mac & butternut squash/cashew cheese right now!
I’d use this pot to try out your recipe!
I would want to put it where I could just look at It! Plus actually using it as a cooking and canning vessel
I would use this for pasta definitely, but also for soup. It’s so pretty that I’d love to just take it to the table for serving soup.