Creamy Tomato Penne

By Candace MacKay

15 people added this to their Recipe Box

This recipe makes 8 servings

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cook time : 1 hour
Total time : PT1H30M

This dish is a warm, comforting dish that makes great leftovers. You can serve it with a salad and/or garlic bread if you choose. I created this dish because I was trying to recreate a similar dish I often ate at one of my favorite Italian restaurants in northern Thailand. I lived there for 6 years and had so many wonderful restaurants to choose from it was often difficult to decide what kind of food to eat. This recipe is not nearly as spicy as what I was served as they used bird's eye chillies to create the heat. This is a milder version which has the added cheese on top giving it a beautiful richness.

Ingredients

1 box penne pasta 1 1box boxpenne pasta
1 medium zucchinis , sliced1 1medium mediumzucchinizucchinis, sliced
12 sliced mushrooms 12 12sliced slicedmushroommushrooms
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes 1 128 oz can 28 oz cancrushed tomatoes
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes 1 128 oz can 28 oz candiced tomatoes
1 500 g package ground turkey 1 1500 g package 500 g packageground turkey or ground chicken
4 garlic cloves , finely diced4 4garlic clovegarlic cloves, finely diced
1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley 1/2 1/2cup cupchopped Italian parsley
1 tbsp dried oregano 1 1tbsp tbspdried oregano
1/2 block softened cream cheese 1/2 1/2block blocksoftened cream cheese
1 medium onions , diced1 1medium mediumoniononions, diced
1-1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese 1-1/2 1-1/2cups cupsgrated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan 1/2 1/2cup cupgrated Parmesan
1 tbsp chili flakes , (at least)1 1tbsp tbspchili flakes, (at least)
3 tbsp olive oil 3 3tbsp tbspolive oil
1 dash salt and pepper 1 1dash dashsalt and pepper

Preparation

Boil a pot of salted water. When boiling add penne. While cooking penne, add a couple glugs of olive oil to a big sauce pan and heat over medium heat. When hot add onions and garlic, don't brown but cook til translucent, about 10 mins. Add a little salt and pepper while sweating the onions and garlic. Add the ground turkey or chicken and fry til almost cooked. Add mushrooms. Once mushrooms start to wilt add the zuchinni. Cook for another five minutes. Add the chilli flakes and oregano. Stir to combine. Add the cans of tomatoes and stir well. Begin to add the cream cheese in little blobs you pull off with your fingers. Continue until all has been added and stir to combine. It will take about 10 mins for the cream cheese to melt, so stir every once in a while. Add more salt and pepper to taste and more oregano or/ and chilli flakes if necessary. When pasta has cooked add to the sauce. Remove from heat and add parsley. Pour into a large casserole dish and top with cheeses. Bake in 350 oven for 30 mins.

Source : Candace MacKay