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Proper comfort food, this creamy Mushroom and Mozzarella bake is a healthy, quick to make, kid approved family favorite dinner. I’ve used a slightly modified version of the white bean cheese sauce to add some extra goodness. This is an easy mid week bake the kids will love!
Mushroom And Mozzarella Bake
A pasta bake is one of the best, easiest and yummiest dinners about. Many kids love pasta and many parents love pasta because it’s a store cupboard staple and we’ve usually got a few packets in.
When we started eating Clean, pasta was one of the things I was concerned the kids would struggle with: Making the change from white pasta to wholemeal.
As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. I actually started mixing the two together for a while and making sure I used a sauce that ‘covered’ the color of the pasta.
Even though I did that and made the change over a few weeks, I don’t remember them having any complaints about it and so I think this is one of the easiest changes you can make when you start this way of eating, or just making the kids meals a tiny bit healthier.
I’ve made this mushroom and mozzarella bake more times than I can remember, and I use my white bean cheese sauce to make it.
Firstly, we all love a cheese sauce and secondly, no one ever knows this isn’t a standard cheese sauce and so I see no good reason not to add the extra nutrition it gives. If you’ve not tried it, you’re in for a good surprise!
I’ve modified the sauce from the recipe slightly because it needs the extra liquid to cook the pasta, so make sure you factor this into the recipe (I’ve added the extra milk in the recipe below).
I half cook the dried pasta in boiling water before I put the bake together, and I’ve done this because it lessens the time the bake takes to cook.
What’s In This Bake?
Apart from some fresh mushrooms and tomatoes, this is a real store cupboard supper. Yay :)
Dried Pasta
I buy dried wholemeal pasta from our local supermarket, and it’s pretty easy to find. There are loads more pasta types available these days compared to what there used to be, but if you’re struggling to find it, there’s always Amazon!
Mozzarella Cheese
Creamy mozzarella, I could eat this stuff all day! While most often used on pizzas mozzarella works so well in pasta recipes too.
I like to buy Buffalo mozzarella if possible but it’s not always available and so I’ll use regular mozzarella. Tear it up before you add it to the pasta layers for this recipe and you’ll end up with some creamy, stringy cheesy bits throughout the dish.
And yep, these are the bits the kids pick out first!
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Mushrooms
I cook with mushrooms a lot. However, that said, I’m no mushroom snob, not at all.
I tend to buy the same mushrooms over and over again (chestnut or white) as these are the common mushrooms sold in my local shops.
Use whatever mushrooms you can get your hands on, if you’re anything like me, they’re all delicious regardless of which types they are.
More Clean Eating Pasta Recipes
- Lemon spaghetti with chicken
- Ham and mushroom pasta
- Creamy mushroom fettuccine
- Easy crab fettuccine
- Creamy avocado pasta
Additions
I’ve added some fresh sliced tomatoes into this mushroom mozzarella bake, and cheese and tomato go hand in hand in this house!
Here are some other things you might like to add to this bake:
- Spinach – If your kids like spinach, add a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach to the pan of pasta bake (it looks like loads, but it cooks down to very little!) before it goes into the oven
- Chicken – If you have some leftover cooked chicken in the fridge and aren’t sure what to do with it, throw it into the pan before you bake the bake! Make sure the chicken’s cooked before adding it to this recipe, there’s not enough cooking time for the meat to cook, so it needs to be pre-cooked
- Bacon – Pre cooked bacon is rather delicious in this. Cheesy bacon is pretty much one of my kids ideas of heaven and so I add a little in from time to time. As with the chicken above, pre cook the bacon first!
Next Day Lunches
This is an awesome next day lunch that you can pack up when you make it and keep overnight in lunchboxes in the fridge.
You can eat this cold or heat it up – if you prefer to have this hot, pop it into the microwave for 2 minutes, take it out and give it a stir and then put it back into the microwave for another minute, or until it’s piping hot throughout.
If the sauce has hardened up too much in the fridge, add a tablespoon of milk to it and stir through to loosen the sauce up a little.
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You can make this ahead of time and then reheat it in the oven later on when you need it. To reheat this bake, pop it into a hot oven for 15 minutes and then the cheesy top will crisp up again, covering it with baking foil for half the reheating time to make sure it doesn’t burn.
This is also a good recipe to reheat in the microwave too. If you’re using the microwave to reheat this, you’ll need to reheat individual portions to make sure it’s really hot and reheated throughout.
Keep your leftovers in the fridge, covered, and they can stay there for up to 2 days.
How To Make Mushroom And Mozzarella Bake
Ingredients
- 3 Cups Pasta Wholemeal, dried
- 1 Batch Three bean cheese sauce See the post for the recipe
- 1 Cup Cheddar cheese Shredded
- 1 Cup Milk Dairy, Plant based
- 2 Cups Mushrooms Peeled, sliced thinly
- 1 Ball Mozzarella Torn into pieces
- 1 Large Beef tomato Thinly sliced, optional
- 1 tsp Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Turn your oven on and heat it to 210° and put a large pan of water on to boil
- Add the dried pasta to the boiling water and boil for ten minutes (the pasta will finish off cooking in the oven)
- In a frying pan, season the mushrooms well and then gently fry the mushrooms in the olive oil for 5-10 minutes while the pasta is cooking
- Make up a batch of three bean cheese sauce, adding an extra cup of milk to make the sauce looser
- Drain your pasta and pop it back into the pan. Add the cheese sauce and combine. Then add the mushrooms and gently mix through
- In your bake pan, add half the pasta bake and add half the mozzarella and tomatoes (if using them)
- Layer the rest of the bake and scatter the remaining mozzarella and tomatoes
- Sprinkle another small handful of cheddar on top of the bake and cover with cooking foil
- Bake for 15-20 minutes in your hot oven
- Remove the foil and allow the cheese to crisp up for another 8-10 minutes
- Serve!
Mushroom And Mozzarella Bake Recipe
Mushroom & Mozzarella Bake
Ingredients
- 3 Cups Pasta Wholemeal, dried
- 1 Batch Three bean cheese sauce See the post for the recipe
- 1 Cup Cheddar cheese Shredded
- 1 Cup Milk Dairy, Plant based
- 2 Cups Mushrooms Peeled, sliced thinly
- 1 Ball Mozzarella Torn into pieces
- 1 Large Beef tomato Thinly sliced, optional
- 1 tsp Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Turn your oven on and heat it to 210° and put a large pan of water on to boil
- Add the dried pasta to the boiling water and boil for ten minutes (the pasta will finish off cooking in the oven)
- In a frying pan, season the mushrooms well and then gently fry the mushrooms in the olive oil for 5-10 minutes while the pasta is cooking
- Make up a batch of three bean cheese sauce, adding an extra cup of milk to make the sauce looser
- Drain your pasta and pop it back into the pan. Add the cheese sauce and combine. Then add the mushrooms and gently mix through
- In your bake pan, add half the pasta bake and add half the mozzarella and tomatoes (if using them)
- Layer the rest of the bake and scatter the remaining mozzarella and tomatoes
- Sprinkle another small handful of cheddar on top of the bake and cover with cooking foil
- Bake for 15-20 minutes in your hot oven
- Remove the foil and allow the cheese to crisp up for another 8-10 minutes
- Serve!
