Artichoke Pasta Bake

This was a quick, delicious weeknight dish!  You can skip the baking step and just serve immediately if you are crunched for time.  It's a delicious dish either way.

Ingredients:

1 lb. rigatoni pasta

4 cups pasta sauce, preferably a low sodium option.  I LOVE Mamma DiSalvo's Original Italian Sauce

1 jar (14 oz) artichoke hearts, chopped

1 can (6 oz) black olives, sliced

1 jar (8 oz) sliced banana pepper (I omitted this because my hubby and son don't like these)

4 oz crumbled feta cheese, low fat

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 bunch Italian parsley, finely chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and set aside.

While pasta is cooking, drain and roughly chop the artichoke hearts and black olives.  Rise and chop the parsley.  If using, drain banana peppers.

In a large bowl, add the cooked pasta, pasta sauce, artichokes, black olives, banana peppers and parsley.  Stir everything together.  Add Parmesan, feta, and 1/2 of the mozzarella.  Stir to combine. 

Transfer pasta mixture to a 9 x 11 inch casserole dish (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray) and top with remaining mozzarella cheese.  Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and sprinkle a little more chopped parsley on the top, if desired.

I still think that this dish would be delicious made dairy-free.  If that is your goal, you could omit all the cheese or you could instead just top with a bit of the Daiya shredded mozzarella style dairy free cheese.

Serve with a tossed garden salad or steamed green vegetable for a complete meal.

Recipe adapted from: http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2011/11/artichoke-pasta-bake-1399-recipe-155.html