Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Penne Bake

TERRI'S PENNE PASTA BAKE- Easy, fast comfort food!
I'll make this for dinner and take a picture that I'll post later :)
This is one of our family favorites. It looks and tastes like you lovingly spent hours making it. I keep everything on hand to make it quickly for those days I have a lot going on!

ingredients:
1 -16 oz. bag of penne pasta
1 small jar of alfredo sauce - or make your own with the recipe here:
milk
thinly sliced deli ham or Prosciutto ( found in the deli section)
1/2 lb. of asparagus or 1/2 bag frozen peas
1-2 cups parmesan cheese

First heat up your water for your pasta. While you wait for it to boil, cut up the deli meat or prociutto into ribbons, and cut the asparagus into 1 inch pieces.

Cook the pasta according the the directions on the package. 3 minutes before its done cooking add the asparagus or peas. Cook al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a small saucepan warm up the alfredo sauce. I fill up the jar 1/2 way with milk and swish it around to get the sauce out and add to the saucepan. Add 1/2 cup of Parmesan to the mixture. This will make the sauce not only go farther, but make it taste more homemade! You can add some minced garlic as well.

Put your oven on broil.

Once the pasta is finished, drain (never rinse pasta!) and put into a 9x13 pan. Sprinkle the ham or Prosciutto over the pasta. Pour the alfredo mixture over the pasta. Stir gently to spread the ingredients around. Next sprinkle the remaining cup of Parmesan on top of everything. Do not stir! Put it under the broiler until the cheese is a light golden brown (5-10 minutes) Watch carefully! If you don't want to broil it put it in at 425 for about 15 minutes.

You can change this up by adding chicken and broccoli, ( I love to use the rotissere chicken from Costco for this) Or anything else that sounds good to you and your family!

Just a tip: You'll notice I use a lot of Parmesan cheese. I buy the large bag of it at Costco and freeze it. It lasts for a long time in the freezer.

4 comments:

  1. This sounds really good and I LOVE easy!!! Can't wait for the picture!!

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  2. I didn't get a picture before everyone dug into it, and then it looked a little unappetizing! haha. It is one of the quickest recipes to make though. My six year old had 4 helpings after I told him the asparagus was baby trees, and how cool is that, to be able to eat a tree?? He ate it, and he's so picky. I was a happy mom last night ;)

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  3. Great pasta recipe, thanks. And I didn't know you could freeze that parmesan cheese that costco has, great to know.

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  4. This sounds delicious! I love peas with alfredo sauce. The best part is it sounds quick and easy to whip together. Thanks for sharing!

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