Monday, March 15, 2010

Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta Bake

I think this is hands down the best pasta bake I've had in my whole life. It was so good that we had it on Saturday and we'll have it again later this week, and with the risk of telling everyone what absolute cows we are, between the three of us we ate the whole thing (sans enough for Maya's lunch the next day).

Recipe is from this post, by Emilie! (And the picture on her blog looks SO much prettier than when I made it... doesn't matter, it was absolutely delicious!)

1-1/2 cups multi-grain penne pasta, uncooked
1 pkg. (9 oz.) fresh spinach leaves
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 jar (14-1/2 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
2 oz. (1/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) reduced fat cream cheese
1 cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
2 Tbsp. Grated Parmesan Cheese


Heat oven to 375ºF. Cook pasta as directed on package, adding spinach to the boiling water the last minute. Cook and stir chicken and basil in large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium-high heat 3 min. Stir in spaghetti sauce and tomatoes; bring to boil. Simmer on low heat 3 min. or until chicken is done. Stir in cream cheese. Drain pasta mixture; return to pan. Stir in chicken mixture and 1/2 cup mozzarella. Spoon into 2-qt. casserole or 8-inch square baking dish. Bake 20 min.; top with remaining cheeses. Bake 3 min. or until mozzarella is melted.

**Note: When I made it the pasta was a bit soggy. I think that next time I won't start cooking the pasta till later, so it's done closer to when the rest of it is ready to go into the baking dish!

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