This has become a family favourite after some small changes. On my first attempt, I found I loved the flavour of the sauce alone, but when mixed into the pasta it was too dry. Since then, I've doubled the sauce (the peppers, tomatoes & spices, but NOT the beans) and used less pasta (3 cups dry). I also have a slightly heavier hand with the cheese on top. Delicious!
After reading everyone's reviews I made the following changes: 1. doubled the tomatoes to 28 oz 2. added 2 diced roma tomatoes 3. increased the cheese from 1/2 cup to 2.5 cups. I also mixed the cheese in instead of just leaving it on top. It turned out really well! Not dry at all and with lots of flavor--and there definitely wasn't too much cheese even though I increased the amount so much. I did have trouble getting it to fit into a 13x9 casserole dish. There was too much food!
Easy to make and is open to substitutions I added zucchini and substituted garbanzo for pinto beans and it turned out great. It was a little dry I would recommend adding some liquid.
I substituted pinto beans for the garbanzo beans but was still disappointed. First it was way too dry -- too much pasta not enough of the "other stuff". Second I didn't know this but I'm not a fan of coriander. I didn't even finish my bowlful. I would have to change it a lot to make it again.
I only used about 12 ounces of gemelli pasta because I didn't want it to be too bland. It wasn't spicy at all with the jalapeno I wouldn't leave it out! I mixed in a few ounces of cream cheese and mixed in the mozzarella too before I baked it.
I made this for my family. We are meat lovin' people but this seems like a good alternative and we still get our protien. I also added zuccini that I had in the fridge. Good!
Was a pretty good recipe.
We LOVED this recipe and did make some adjustments that others suggested like less pasta twice as much tomatoes no coriander and a little more cheese. If I hadn't told him my husband would not have even paid attention to the fact that this was a vegetarian meal...that how wonderful it was!