Recipe Files: Artichoke Pasta Bake

Happy Monday, friends! I have an awesome recipe for you all to try, and it fits with my good blog buddy Shari's theme for Meatless Mondays! I'd seen this recipe on Pinterest a while back and had been wanting to try it, but never got around to it. Well, my friend Bree was coming over to check out the condo and hang out, so we decided to make it for dinner and BOY was it delish!

What did we make, you ask? Artichoke Pasta Bake  from Budget Bytes.

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What you need:

• 1 lb. pasta (rigatoni)
• 4 cups pasta sauce (keep in mind, this means more than 1 jar of sauce)
• 1 14oz can quartered artichoke hearts
• 1 6oz can whole black olives
• 1 8oz jar sliced banana peppers
• 4 oz crumbled feta
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese 
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella 
• 1/2 bunch parsley (I used dried parsley and just sprinkled it in)

Step 1: Cook the pasta according to the box. Use a big pot because 1 lb of pasta is a lot, and you will be adding ingredients to it later, and you need room to stir. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Step 2: While the pasta is cooking, drain and chop the artichoke hearts and the black olives (I used a chopper for the olives and it worked really well....not so well for the artichoke hearts). Rinse and chop the parsley (or just use the dry kind). Remove the banana peppers from the jar.

Step 3: After you've drained the pasta and returned it to the pot, add in the pasta sauce, artichoke hearts,  black olives, banana peppers and parsley. Stir until even. Add the parmesan, feta and 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Stir to mix.

Step 4: Transfer the mixture to a 9x11 casserole dish. Top with the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. The directions say to cover with foil and add to the oven. We didn't cover ours and it made it a little nice and crispy on top. Choose what you prefer. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove it from the oven and add some more parsley.

It smells amazing as it's cooking. And it tastes SO good. I was a little wary of banana peppers in a pasta dish. I love them in subs, but I wasn't sure how they would go here. Let me tell you, they really work in this dish. The whole meal is awesome!

Bree and I were "mmmm"ing a lot while we were eating! It was hard to have just one portion.

So we both had two :)

Try it out. You won't regret it!