This post brought to you by Ragu. All opinions are 100% mine.
I absolutely love lasagna! My family would actually agree, it’s a meal we have quite often. But then again, we love everything Italian. Spaghetti, baked ziti, chicken Parmesan, we lap it all up and salivate at the very mention of it. As time has gone on, I have tried new recipes that we have grown to love, and others that have completely failed. But I would have to say that two of our favorite recipes are lasagna and baked ziti.
One of the first meals I can remember having while visiting my future in-laws for the first time is lasagna. We have since shared many meals with them, and it’s always amazing. So one day, many years later, I finally asked my mother-in-law, what’s your secret to the perfect lasagna? She smiled and told me her secret was a jar of Ragú®! I was completely baffled! I thought for sure she spent hours laboring over the stove fussing over this delectable sauce! I was a changed person after that conversation and began to turn to Ragú® for my Italian dishes.
Now, I could eat pasta every night for dinner. My wife doesn’t allow it, but I love, love, love pasta! It’s so rich and flavorful and topped with just the right amount of cheese. One thing my wife does is try to reduce the amount of carbs we eat, and pump up our protein factor. That means that we try new things, and tonight was no different. We decided to make a Baked Black Bean Spaghetti. It’s a mash up of baked ziti and lasagna. The pasta is made completely out of black beans and is available in major grocery stores. The trick is to use two different Ragú® sauces to layer in flavor. We add some cheese traditionally used in lasagna, like ricotta and Parmesan, and, wow! The result is a layered lasagna spaghetti that is visually stunning and makes your taste buds smile.
The flavor profile from the sauces really set this dish off and the non-traditional pasta will add some excitement to an otherwise boring dinner that your whole family will love! I’d say this is a new ‘tra-dish’ in our house! Hope you enjoy this delicious recipe!
Ingredients:
2 containers (15 oz. ea.) ricotta cheese-lowfat
2 8 oz bags of Italian shredded cheese
2 8 oz bags grated Parmesan cheese,
Eggs
1 container 1/3 less fat cream cheese
2 jars of Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional or other favorite Ragú® Sauce
1 jar of Ragú® Classic Alfredo Sauce
½ pound of dry black bean pasta
1 tbs of dried oregano
1lbs of ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
2 tsp of dried thyme
1 tbs of dried oregano
1tbs of garlic powder
2 eggs
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine, ricotta, 1 bag of parmesan cheese, 1 bag of Italian blend cheese, eggs and garlic powder, thoroughly mixing. In a skillet brown ground beef with onions pepper and spices. Salt and pepper to taste. Assemble in a casserole dish putting a layer of Old World Style® Traditional sauce in the bottom, followed by the pasta, cheese mixture, Classic Alfredo sauce, then repeat only this time using red sauce. Repeat until pan is filled. Bake for 45 minutes and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
Here are the recipes that inspired me to make this meal. No Boiling Beefy Baked Ziti and this one No Boiling Lasagna. A time of oh no’s turned into a tasty innovation! I know you can come up with your own Tra-dish!!!! Let Ragú® Sauce inspire your dinner!
Ragú® has a variety of flavors that are great for any meal. See more recipes and inspirations here. Make sure to LIKE them on Facebook, Follow them on Twitter and Pinterest!
Where in the recipe do I use the cream cheese, peppers, oregano, thyme and other bag of Italian cheese??
My apologies, I now see where the peppers and seasonings are added, but still curious about the cream cheese.
Ragu does make for some good spaghetti and this looks awesome. I can’t say I’ve ever had something like this before, but I am for sure willing to give this a try soon. Thanks for sharing and have a good day!
The thing I love so much about Ragu is that it has all kinds of different flavors in terms of sauces, and most of them are really quite good. I put Ragu in pretty much every pasta I make, so that’s saying something also. 🙂
I agree with you Andrea. Ragu has so much different styles and flavors it really makes for some decent spaghetti’s and other pastas.
Also, Ragu rocks and so does this recipe guys. It’s terrific stuff!
This looks like something I’ve never really seen before, but I am willing to try it. I’ve had my fair share of lasagna, and it does look a lot like it, so I am all for trying this. As for Ragu, I love their sauces. Really some of the best around these days.
My mom also uses Ragu as her secret, well not so secret, special ingredient for her lasagna. Ragu can be used for just about any reason and I absolutely love it. Anyways, I have never had baked black bean spaghetti, but it’s worth a try I bet.
Loving the recipe. I love the idea of making a black bean spaghetti. I imagine it’s also a healthier alternative to other types of spaghetti. Also you can’t go wrong with Ragu.
I printed this recipe off last night and cooked it up, and wow it was great. And I normally don’t make the greatest food, but following your recipe made things so easy. It was wonderful though. I can’t wait to try other recipes soon.
I’m really fond of different types of flavors. I never really experimented with different flavors in spaghetti, but maybe it’s time I do so. Cause it looks really good!
Ragu rocks! I like to use it in a lot of meals. I actually use it on this homemade pizza I like to make once in a while. I don’t know if ragu is good for pizza, but when I make it, it tastes wonderful. Well, I’m going to have to try this baked black bean spaghetti now.
Awesome job on this, looks really good. Lasagna mixed with the idea of spaghetti. I never would have thought of it to be honest, but now I must make it. It looks really good! 😀
No where in the directions does it tell you where to use the cream cheese OR the ground beef mixture. Was in the middle of making it before I realized this. Had to guess. Just took it out of the oven and don’t think it worked out at all. I sure hope I didn’t waste a lot of time and ingredients on this. VERY DISAPPOINTING!!!! 🙁
How many eggs do you use?
The direction for this recipe is “half way baked”. No steps mentioned the required cream-cheese or cooked ground beef. I can see that people who really tried to make it had troubles and left their comments, but the author did not reply to any of them. I have no hope for my comments either.
I wish the recipe would be written as good as that picture of the baked black bean lasagna on the header of the post.
Yum
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