Recipe For Baked Vegetarian Pasta Pie

Ingredients

1 Tbs. breadcrumbs
8 oz. capellini or other thin, spaghetti-like pasta
6 large outer leaves of savoy cabbage, or more if needed
2 cups chopped tomatoes plus 1 large tomato
30 black olives, chopped, preferably kalamata
1 Tbs. large capers
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. fresh sweet basil, minced
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Minced parsley for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray deep 10-inch pie plate with nonstick cooking spray, and dust with breadcrumbs.
2. Bring large saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil, and cook pasta about 10 minutes, or until tender. Drain, and set aside in large mixing bowl.
3. Trim off any tough ribs at base of each cabbage leaf, and cook leaves in boiling water about 5 minutes, or until tender. Remove from water, drain, and pat dry with paper towels.
4. Line pie plate with cabbage leaves, using scissors to trim leaves evenly along rim of dish. Make sure to overlap leaves so they completely cover bottom.
5. Combine cooked pasta, chopped tomatoes, olives, capers, garlic, olive oil, sweet basil and pepper in large mixing bowl, and toss together. Place pasta mixture into lined pie plate, and pat down firmly with wooden spoon or spatula.
6. Cut tomato into thin slices, and arrange evenly over top of filling. Scatter grated cheese evenly over tomatoes.
7. Bake 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and cool on rack. Garnish with minced parsley, and serve at room temperature.

Serves 8-10.

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