Baked Spinach and Mushroom Rigatoni

Source:  Real Simple Magazine

28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
2 T olive oil
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1/2 lb rigatoni
1 red onion sliced (I chopped mine -- b/c I didn't read the directions carefully).
1 lb mixed mushrooms trimmed and sliced (I used baby portobella, shiitake and enochi mushrooms)
2 10 oz packages of spinach thawed and squeezed of excess liquid
15 oz container of ricotta
8 oz mozzarella cheese

Break up the tomatoes and their juices in a medium bowl with your hands.  Be careful, with my first enthusiastic squeeze, I managed to squirt tomato juice all over myself, my daughter and the kitchen floor.  Add the garlic, oil, 3/4 t salt and 1/2 t pepper.  In a separate bowl (and pick a really nice big bowl), combine the uncooked rigatoni, onion and mushrooms.

Spread a third of the tomato mixture in the bottom of a 4 to 6 quart of slow cooker.  Top with half of the pasta mixture, half the spinach, a third of the tomato mixture, half the ricotta and half the mozzarella.  Repeat.

Cover and cook on high until the pasta is tender, 3.5 to 4 hours.

Serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

I picked this recipe b/c I love slow cooker recipes -- it is so nice to come home at the end of a long day to a house that smells delicious and it feels like someone spent all day making you dinner.  They are also nice on a lazy Sunday like today, b/c it just feels so homey.  It's great in the winter b/c you can make soups, stews etc.  They are great in the summer b/c you don't have to slave over a hot stove or oven.  They are great.  Why, I ask myself, then, do I have one of those cheesy old slowcookers that have the designs on the outside and are tall and narrow?  Why don't I have one of those sleek new steel models with the lids that lock in place?  Why?  I don't have the answer to that, other than I don't think about slow cookers other than on the few occasions that I use them.  But there is a great gift idea should someone want to get me a birthday/Christmas present :)

I am having an attention deficit sort of day.  I failed to follow the recipe in several respects.  I completely messed up the layering sequence, for one.  In the end, I just randomly put things in the crockpot.  I also didn't realize until about 5 minutes after I turned it on, that I completely omitted the mozzarella cheese.

Another note on the recipe -- it makes a lot.  I am not sure what size my crockpot is -- it's the standard old school slow cooker -- it is overstuffed with the amount of stuff this recipe makes.  However, as you start cooking and the mushrooms shrink -- the space issue improves greatly.

OK, so no picture of this dish -- it is just not that pretty -- it's pasta and a bunch of stuff -- there was just no pretty way to dish it up.  By the way, for serving, I put some of the mozzarella cheese I left out on top of my pasta.

This is a solid, hearty vegetarian dish -- perfect for a weeknight.  I would recommend solid seasoning with salt and pepper as there are a lot of mellow flavors going on in the dish.  And I would also highly recommend using a mixture of interesting mushrooms -- the texture of the mushrooms are key in this dish, and lets face it, button mushrooms don't have much of a texture or flavor.  So splurge on some good mushrooms, your dish will thank you.