Some pasta with your cheese?

Do you guys subscribe to recipe websites? I get daily emails from Real Simple, Cooking Light, and MyRecipes.com. More often than not, I’ll take a look at the emailed recipe and send it to my trash folder. But sometimes they come up with a doozy and I immediately bookmark it, print it out, and add the ingredients to my shopping list. This dish was one of those doozies.

Cheesy Baked Pasta with Spinach and Artichokes
Ahhhhh!!! Let the Heavens siiiinnnngg!!! Ahhhhhh!!!

The lighting in my kitchen is all weird.

Oh. YES.  Now, Real Simple titled the subject of this email recipe “One Recipe to Rule Them All”.  Now I don’t know about that, but this was hella good. (Yes. I just used the word “hella”.)  Pasta, spinach, artichokes and cheese?  Yes please!!  And I’m a girl who likes food a little on the crispy side, so the broiled parts on top?  Were my favorite.

Mmmm. Cheesy pasta deliciousness.

Gooey, deliciously cheesy pasta.  And you can fool yourself into thinking it’s kind of healthy, because of the spinach!!  Well, at least that’s what I did!  Dave thought this was so good, he almost went back for not just seconds, but thirds.  If that’s not a sign that the recipe is a keeper, I don’t know what is.

Cheesy Baked Pasta with Spinach and Artichokes
Recipe – from Real Simple
Ingredients
- 8 ounces mezzi rigatoni or some other short pasta (1/2 box) (I used penne… its what we had in the house)
- 1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts, rinsed and quartered
- 1 9-ounce package frozen creamed spinach, thawed
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan (1 ounce)
- 2 cups grated mozzarella (8 ounces)
- black pepper

Directions
1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and return it to the pot.
2. Add the artichoke hearts, spinach, Parmesan, 1 cup of the mozzarella, and ¼ teaspoon pepper to the pasta and toss to combine.
3. Heat broiler. Transfer the pasta mixture to a shallow 2-quart (or 8-inch square) broilerproof baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining cup of mozzarella.
4. Broil until the cheese is browned in spots, 2 to 3 minutes.

Enjoy!!!