All Recipes Best Recipe Main Dish Recipes Pasta

Ingredients

1 teaspoon salt, divided 1 (12 ounce) package penne pasta ½ cup butter 2 cups 1-inch strips cooked ham 1 (8 ounce) package sliced fresh mushrooms ½ cup all-purpose flour 1 bay leaf 2 cups milk ½ teaspoon dried basil 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

Nutrition Info

608.2 calories carbohydrate: 57 g cholesterol: 84.1 mg fat: 30.9 g fiber: 4 g protein: 27.8 g saturatedFat: 16.4 g servingSize: - sodium: 1351.6 mg sugar: 6.8 g transFat: : - unsaturatedFat: : -

Stir 1/2 teaspoon salt into a pot of water, bring to a boil. Stir penne pasta into the boiling water and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender yet firm to the bite, about 11 minutes, drain.
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir ham and mushrooms in hot butter until the mushrooms are softened, 3 to 4 minutes.
Stir flour, remaining salt, and bay leaf into the ham mixture, cook and stir until flour begins to bind butter into a paste, about 2 minutes. Stream milk into the skillet while stirring. Melt Parmesan cheese into the milk mixture, add basil and continue cooking and stirring until the milk thickens into a sauce, 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove skillet from heat and immediately stir spinach into the sauce, add to drained pasta and stir to coat the pasta.

6 servings

This is a full-on pasta dish with ham, mushrooms, spinach, and a Parmesan cheese sauce. Serve with fresh ground pepper.