Great question! This one uses a combination of cream cheese and ricotta instead of mozzarella. The result is a creamy topping, more like the filling of burrata which is a mozzarella. It’s luxuriously creamy, rather than mozzarella which would still be delicious, but different with that cheese pull texture, rather than creamy.

I’ve used sausage instead too. I’ll also add red pepper flake as well. This is one of those “revise to taste” recipes, but it’s great to have a template!

I would advise using a blender to chop carrots and celery plus add some mushroom, blend it until you have a ground meat like mass, I am a meat eater but this combination is probably even tastier then meat, also I add this mix into my Bolognese sauce always minus the mushrooms.

Chop and fry portobello mushrooms in place of hamburger.

Cottage cheese is the closest substitute for ricotta. You can make it less watery by using a full fat cottage cheese, which is still only 4% but it works. Another option you could try is creme fraiche.

There are great meat replacement options on the market nowadays. All you’d need to do is use one of the ground beef alternatives.

I made this this yesterday. So good! My husband loved it. And he is not a big fan of baked pasta dishes