Looking for a delicious way to use up that summer zucchini from your garden? Try this easy summer zucchini pasta bake! It takes such a short amount of time to throw together and its cheesy goodness will make you crave this comforting dish on those busy weeknights.
My favorite recipes are always the ones that I throw together on a whim. The times when I pull random ingredients out of my fridge that I need to use and make something delicious out of them are some of my proudest moments. It’s also when I feel the most freedom in the kitchen. An expensive piece of protein can be intimidating. But give me an overflow of veggies that need eaten and I’m in the zone.
That’s exactly how this summer zucchini pasta bake came to be. Pasta is my favorite thing to make because there’s so many different things you can do with it. Not to mention, with the number of pasta varieties out there, the drool worthy possibilities are truly endless. So when I had some extra zucchini that I didn’t want to go to waste, I immediately thought a pasta bake was the way to go.
I wasn’t even thinking at the time about sharing the recipe on this blog, but I thought let me write down the measurements just in case. When I opened the oven, I hoped it would taste as yummy as it looked. Then I actually tasted it, and I was super thankful I wrote it down because it was just that freaking good.
My Summer Zucchini Pasta Bake Recipe
Serves 6
Ingredients:
- 1 lb rigatoni
- 1 medium/large zucchini (or 2 if they’re small), sliced and quartered
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- fresh ground black pepper
- salt
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 slice of provolone cheese, shredded
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce, divided
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Cook the pasta to package directions, drain, and set aside. (Make sure to sprinkle some salt in your pasta water before boiling.)
- In a small bowl, add the shredded mozzarella, garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano, and dried basil and mix well. Set aside.
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once shimmering (but not smoking), add the zucchini and cook until tender. Set aside.
- Take 1 cup of the pasta sauce and spread it in the bottom of a baking dish.
- Add the cooked pasta, zucchini, shredded provolone, 1 cup of the mozzarella/spice mixture, and 1 more cup of the sauce to the baking dish and mix well. Then, top it off with the remaining half of the mozzarella/spice mixture.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted.
MADE THIS RECIPE? SHOW ME HOW IT TURNED OUT!
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LOOKING FOR MORE RECIPES?
Check out what I’ve been serving up lately here.
