Baked Pasta in a White Wine Herbed Mushroom Sauce

Baked Pasta in White Wine Herbed Mushroom Sauce 

I do love me a good baked pasta.  It's just so comforting on a chilly gray Boston day but I tend to find myself in a rut when it comes to a good baked pasta.  Most I find are tomato based, which is all fine and good but sometimes it's nice to shake things up a bit and create something a little different.

YUM

I was really happy with the way this turned out and it was exactly what I was looking for.  Sweet bits of Italian turkey sausage swimming in a bubbly sea of penne pasta and a simply rich mushroom white wine herb sauce.  The entire dish was then topped off with a positively delightful blend of gruyere and swiss cheeses.  The entire dish was then popped into the oven and then dusted with fresh chopped parsley.

Aren't new baked pasta recipes the best?

The best part?  This easy baked pasta took little time to put together but yielded some pretty tasty results that totally broke me out of a tomato based pasta bake rut.  Additionally, you could used some shredded chicken or turkey instead of the sausage or you could make this a vegetarian option by omitting the meat all together and using veggie stock instead of chicken stock.  In hindsight, a bit of fresh spinach would have also gone nicely in here.  Next time..


Baked Pasta in Mushroom White Wine Sauce
* Serves about 2, with leftover sauce

- 2 links of turkey sausage, casings removed
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 small pat of butter
- 1 carton of mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cups Chicken Stock (I've lately been in love with Kitchen Basics Chicken Stock)
- 1 cup white wine
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp dried rosemary
-  1 tbs flour
- 2 cups penne pasta
- Salt for the pasta water
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Enough shredded Gruyere and Swiss to cover the top (Trader Joe's has a blend or you could just use or or the other)

Start by melting the butter in a pan and adding the minced garlic on medium heat.  Cook the garlic for a couple of minutes until it starts to get translucent.  Add the sausage and break it into bits, allowing it to brown. Once the sausage starts to brown, add the mushrooms and cook until they get soft.  Next, add the flour to the pot and stir it all together for a couple of minutes until the flour starts to soak up any juices.  Once this happens, add the chicken stock, wine, bay leaf, thyme and rosemary.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cover and let this simmer for at least 30 minutes (the longer you let it simmer, the more flavorful your sauce will be!)

Next, cook the pasta in some salted water (only cook it for about 1/2 the time you normally would since it will continue cooking in the oven).  Once the pasta is cooked, generously add the sauce to the pasta.  (Whenever making baked pasta dishes, always use way more sauce than you think you'll need. In this case, I used about 2/3 of the sauce that I made).  Top with cheese and bake at 300 degrees until the cheese gets bubbly and brown (About 45 minutes).