An easy and delicious pesto ricotta pasta bake with all the flavours of lasagna, in an easy to make baked pasta. You’ll love the ricotta-filled pasta, brushed with pesto and baked on a base of marinara sauce.
Why you’ll love this ricotta pasta bake
Perfect for Meatless Monday, this baked pesto pasta with ricotta is simple easy, weeknight fare! It’s a bit like a deconstructed lasagna, with the same great flavours in a much easier form.
Egg pasta lasagna sheets are boiled, then bathed in a store-bought pesto. Simply fill with a ricotta filling and bake on some marinara sauce. Made easy by using a good-quality, store-bought marinara sauce and pesto.
Of course, if you have more time and/or energy, you can make your own marinara and/or pesto, as you like. With the availability of great store-bought marinara and pesto these days, I love being able to make this dish quickly and easily some times.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Dishes like this pasta bake with only a few ingredients really benefit from using the best ingredients you can.
Lasagna Sheets – Look for the short, ruffle-less pasta sheets in with the regular dried lasagna noodles. They are usually 6 or 7 inches long. You could use regular length and simply cut in half once boiled. Fresh lasagna noodles are another good option and feature the added benefit of a super-quick boiling time.
Pesto – a good store-bought basil pesto is just fine here, though you can certainly make your own pesto, if you like.
Ricotta – again, a good, full-fat ricotta will serve you well here. Lower fat ricotta has more water and can make for a soggy dish.
Marinara Sauce – store-bought jarred marinara sauce is what I use. I love the PC Black Label Marinara or Rao’s or a similar good quality marinara will give good results. Of course, you can use a homemade marinara sauce, if you like. (I have a great Roasted Tomato Marinara Sauce, if you need a recipe!
Recipe Tips
This pasta bake is perfect for making in individual dishes, such as small au gratin dishes, but you could make it in one larger, oval baking dish (or oval skillet, as I have here), if you like.
I like to place the dish or dishes on top of a baking sheet to catch any bubble-overs. Just in case!
Making ahead, storing and freezing
You could easily assemble these dishes ahead, cover, refrigerate and bake off later, if you like.
You can freeze the baked pasta bake up to 3 months.
Get the Recipe: Pesto Ricotta Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 2 cups Marinara sauce, store-bought or make your own
- 1/4 cup Pesto sauce, store-bought or make your own
- 3-4 Lasagna sheets, about 6-7 inches long(or use 2 regular length sheets and cut in half after boiling)
Ricotta filling:
- 1 cup ricotta cheese, full fat recommended
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese, grated, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 F.
- Boil a large pot of salted water and cook lasagna sheets until al dente. Rinse with cold water and set aside.
- While pasta is boiling, prepare ricotta filling by combining all ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Spoon a bed of marinara sauce on to the bottom of your baking skillet or dish. Take a sheet of cooked and drained pasta and lay on a plate. Brush both sides well with pesto sauce. Spoon a generous dollop of ricotta mixture on to one half of the lasagna sheet. Fold the other half over top. Lay the packet on top of the marinara sauce. Repeat with two more lasagna sheets, over-lapping them slightly. Sprinkle top with grated Mozzarella.
- Cover skillet/dish with aluminum foil. Place baking dish on top of a baking sheet (to catch any bubble-overs) and bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes (or until sauce is bubbly and ricotta is melting). Remove foil and pop dish under the broiler for a a minute to brown up the cheese. Remove and enjoy!
Notes
More Pasta Bake Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Am I correct in assuming I may assemble a bit before and bring to room temperature then bake? Thank you for a lovely recipe.
Hi Robin and yes, you can absolutely assemble ahead and bake later :) Enjoy!
I made this for dinner and it is a nice, easy, and tasty meal. I used jarred marinara and the pesto from Costco which is very good. Next time I will double the batch so I have some for leftovers.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks :)
My second recipe of yours this week! Made this tonight for dinner. Didn’t have sheets of lasagna so made my handkerchiefs out of two lasagna noodles. Yummy dish! I made a smaller dish as well and rolled the lasagna noodles with the filling for this one. Will put it in the freezer for a future meal. ?
So glad you enjoyed this Sandra and extra for freezing is always good :)
This looks so good and I am excited to make it since I accidentally bought about a year’s supply of lasagna noodles. YUM!
Lol Ellen :) Well you are definitely all set then! Enjoy.
I saw this recipe today and it looked so good, I just HAD to make it for dinner tonight. I was not disappointed. It was wonderful! Even with me not picking the right noodles (I’ve never worked with handkerchief pasta and couldn’t find them in my small store) and leaving it under the broiler too long, it was still delicious and comforting. I’ll be making this many more times. I just have to figure out where to buy those pasta sheets! TFS this with us.
So glad you enjoyed it, Denimo! Thanks for coming back to let me know :)
This looks incredible with the stunning bright red tomato sauce and the greens from the pesto. Funny enough, my son Gavin loves to wear ties everyday to school (or as often as we let him) and with that comes him literally folding in handkerchiefs into his suit jacket. I just showed him your recipe title, and he thought that was cool that it had a handkerchief. This is on the list to try for my kids.
Thanks Cindy and that’s funny about your son :) This is just the dish for him!
What an absolutely gorgeous dish! I’ve never heard of handkerchief pasta before but I will definitely have to try this. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Valentina :)
This is the perfect small batch meal… it might even be great for Valentine’s Day too :)
Thanks Laura and yes, I’d be very happy to enjoy this on Valentine’s Day!
This is another fascinating recipe from your amazing kitchen Jennifer. I’ve never seen the lasagna sheet used this way and I love it. So outside the box – or maybe I’ve been living in a box. I used to make stuffed shells all the time when the kids were little. I miss that ricotta pasta combo!
Thanks Tricia and yes, this is such a quick and easy way to get all those great flavours together!
So much droooool! Seriously, who needs meat when you can have this?!? These Pasta Handkerchiefs are everything, Jennifer! So creative and ultimate in the delicious depatrment! Love the ricotta, pesto and marinara in here! This gives new meaning to the phrase triple threat! Pinned! Cheers!
Thanks so much, Cheyanne and you’re right, you will never miss the meat here!
Every time I come to your blog I just wish I were at your house to sample your amazing dishes. This looks SO good… like it is straight out of an italian restaurant. Yum!
Thanks Sarah :) I love this dish and easy is a bonus!
This is simplicity at its finest! Love those noodle sheets – yum!
Thanks so much, Katrina :)
I am literally drooling over this pasta dish Jennifer! I just saw those lasagna sheets at the market and I’ve been dying to use them. Can’t wait to try this one. I love how easy it looks too!
Thanks Mary Ann and yes, it’s wonderfully easy and as delicious as it looks :)
This is just glorious, I love the texture of fresh lasagna sheets, they are so delicate! The name handkerchief really fits!
Thanks so much, Sue :)
What a fabulous, delicious idea! This will definitely be on my “to make list”! I’m thinking about so many variations too!
Thanks Chris and yes! So many ways to customize this dish :)