Creamy Penne Pasta with Cheesy Basil Crumb

Ready in 30 minutes • Serves 2
This dish most recently appeared in My Choice (5 Nights For 2) on Sunday, August 29, 2021.

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Creamy penne pasta is topped with a crunchy cheesy parmesan crumb spiked with spinach and fresh basil. This is the the perfect combination of comforting flavours to satisfy your tastebuds! What's more, this dish is ready in only 30 minutes.

Ingredients

Pasta

1/3 pack pasta

Topping

25g breadcrumbs
50g cheese, grated
1 bunch basil, roughly chopped
25g baby spinach, chopped
1 drizzle of olive oil

Sauce

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
3/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp plain flour
1/2 pack Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp butter
1 drizzle of oil
45g cheese, grated
1/4 cauliflower, roughly chopped
1/2 leek, thinly sliced

Steps

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Preheat oven to high grill. If you don’t have an oven-proof fry-pan, set aside a medium baking dish.
Thinly slice onion and leek, chop cauliflower, grate cheese, roughly chop spinach and basil.
Heat oil and butter in a large oven-proof fry-pan on high heat and cook onion, leek, cauliflower and salt for about 10 minutes, until soft and browned.
Cook pasta in pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes, until tender. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water before draining.
Add Italian seasoning and flour to pan and cook for about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add milk, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring, until smooth and thickened. Whisk in first measure of cheese and 1/4 cup reserved pasta water. Stir through cooked pasta and season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to baking dish, if using.
In a medium bowl, mix second measure of cheese, spinach, basil, breadcrumbs and olive oil together. Scatter over pasta and grill in oven for 3-5 minutes, until browned.
Pasta.

Nutritional Information

Energy	2869 kj 686 kcal
Protein	29.1g
Carbohydrate	76.8g
Fat	28.8g