Author: Rebecca Cuneo Keenan

Disclosure: I am part of the Finish Blogger Program by Mom Central. I received compensation as part of my affiliation with this group.  The opinions on this blog are my own.

The good people at Finish and Mom Central Canada thought it would be fun for bloggers to post about a family dinner with baked on food and to show how the dishes clean up using Finish Quantum. Share your cooking experience and some before and after pics of the dishes, they said.

What I heard, though, was a call to trot out my inner Pioneer Woman. I mean, aside from the fantastic cooking and photographing, we’re practically the same person. (And the homeschooling, ohmygod. That woman is a saint, a saint who makes me want to cook wonderfully delicious and fattening things.)

But a seven month old baby and the t-ball, swimming, birthday party, kindergarten orientation, end-of-season hockey party schedule from hell dictated the dish. We’re having baked pasta with jarred sauce and hella cheese. Read carefully as I navigate you through the recipe in excruciating detail.

First, and this is important, pour a good amount of water in a big pot and put it on to boil. Don’t worry about cleaning your sink before you post pictures of it to the internet either.

While your waiting for the water to boil, gather the rest of your ingredients. I’m using some sort of tubular pasta that’s bigger than penne, but smaller than rigatoni. You can use whatever you want as long as it’s not spaghetti. Baked spaghetti is stupid. Learn from my mistakes. I also had most of a jar of this ah-mazing marinara sauce I just discovered at Costco. You can make your own if you like things to take longer and be less delicious. I used to be that way, too. Lastly, there’s the cheese. I happen to live around the corner from a fantastic little cheese factory with all the fresh mozzarella and ricotta and freshly grated Parmesan a heart can desire. You’ll have to make do with whatever you can get your hands on. Sorry.

Start grating the mozzarella. You can just tell how good this stuff is, can’t you? You’ll probably want to sneak a couple tastes just to make sure at this point too. It’s okay, I won’t tell.

Go ahead and grate all that cheese. What the hell are you saving it for anyway?

Your water’s probably boiling by now, so — wait for it — go ahead and add the pasta. What would you do without me?

Set your colander in the sink while you wait for the pasta to cook. And if you’re like me, you’ll probably have to wash it while you’re there.

It’s also a good idea to set out your baking dish. Again, I’m using a Pyrex dish, but you can use anything that’s oven safe as long it has an ample cheese sprinkling surface.

Things are about to get a little more involved at this point, so it’s not a bad idea to call in a helper. (Cupcake apron sold separately.)

Drain the pasta in the colander and then transfer to the baking dish. Aren’t you glad I told you to have them ready and waiting?

Pour on your tomato sauce. Life is good.

Take a well-deserved break while your helper mixes the pasta with the sauce.

Then let her sprinkle on the mozzarella cheese — all of the mozzarella cheese. Life just got better.

She’s going to want to add about a quarter cup of grated Parmesan, too. Don’t get in her way.

At this point, you can just pop this baby in a 350 or 375 degree oven for half an hour or until the cheese gets all good and bubbly. Or you can put a lid on it and put it in the fridge while you head out in a downpour to take a 6 year old to swimming lessons with a 3 year old and a 7 month old in tow. Whichever.

Eventually we returned home and popped that baby in the oven. This is not a cooking show, my friends. That is a real oven, greased up window and all.

And it’s ready! Do you see what the oven did to that cheese? Look at how wonderfully brown and crispy-gooey it is.

Look at it! Don’t look at the conspicuous lack of a salad, though. I was going to pick up greens to serve with the pasta, but did I mention the downpour and the three young children? Random veggies from the fridge it is!

And here’s the payback. (Well, there’s this and the calories applied directly to my hips.) That pan is covered in tomato-y grease and baked-on cheese. The picture doesn’t even really do it justice. Normally I’d let it soak for a bit in the sink and then scrub it with dish soap, elbow grease and scouring pads. This time they want me to put it in the dishwasher.

You guys. That is one shiny, clean baking dish. Even the glassware I washed with it is sparkling. Just pretend you don’t notice the giant container of Cascade dishwasher gel in the background. I was using that before and washing every single pot and pan by hand.

I am about to start saving a lot of time. Whatever should I do with it? [Pointedly not looking at the mountain of laundry or floor covered with toys.]