Beef and spinach pasta bake

The original recipe can be found on the Taste of Home website--it was one of those "how I got my kid to eat....." recipes (spinach was the secret ingredient). The original calls for 2 cups of cheddar cheese and 1-1/2 cups of mozzarella. Use lots of fresh baby spinach (steamed lightly) instead of frozen. Use fusilla (spiral) pasta. Olive oil is not necessary. This is a great make-ahead recipe, and freezes well.  -  13 Feb 2009  (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)

Delicious! It made exactly two 6"x8" dishes. I baked one of them for 25 minutes at 350 and it was perfect. Really, really good. The one thing is that I think the quantity of spaghetti sauce at 16 ounces is a mistake. I looked and looked at the grocery store but I didn't find any 16 oz jars, only 26 oz jars... that and the complaints from other users that this dish was dry leads me to believe the author meant 26 oz not 16. So I used a whole 26 oz jar of spaghetti sauce and it was perfect, not too saucey and not dry at all. Just right. I froze the other 6x8" dish and will reheat it for dinner in a few weeks. My husband, who is not a very big pasta fan, thought it was delicious.  -  01 Feb 2010  (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)

This recipe was delicious. I made it for my husband and daughter who dislike spinach and they ate it up. My in-laws came out the next day and the leftovers were gobbled up in seconds. Next time I think I will use ricotta cheese instead of mozzerella as it will add better flavor and add more moisture to the noodles during re-heating. The only bad thing about this recipe is that is really dirties a lot of dishes. Next time, I will simply defrost the spinach instead of cooking it and I will go ahead and mix it together with the eggs, cheese and oil right in the baking dish. Very good stuff, this will become a weekly meal in our house and the leftovers make good lunches.  -  21 Oct 2002  (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)