Greek Macaroni Bake

I saw this recipe on Living the Gourmet, a wonderful cooking blog run by my pal Catherine Pappas. That woman knows HOW TO COOK. I was recently in a bind for dinner time (had no meat thawed and no vegetables around!) and I remembered her wonderful recipe. As isusual, I amended it a little bit to accommodate our tastes, but most of Catherine’s recipe is unchanged. Here it is!!!

29 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
7 cloves of chopped garlic (I didn’t have any fresh garlic so I used garlic powder. Sorry, Catherine!)
2 tablespoons dried basil (hey, I like basil, ok?)
½ cup of chicken broth (I used water)
Dash of ground nutmeg
Dash of salt
Dash of ground black pepper
18 oz. of frozen spinach
2 tablespoons dairy cream
1 cup mozzarella cheeese
1 lb. of your favorite macaroni
8 oz. of feta cheese, crumbled
Olive oil – for drizzling

I also added some leftover, frozen (pre-cooked) ground beef that I needed to use up. The beef adds a wonderful savor to the dish, especially with the nutmeg.

I boiled my penne rigate.

I sauteed my beef with the first 7 ingredients in the list for about 20 minutes. I then added the frozen spinach on top and allowed it to thaw. I then added the cream.

I placed the pasta in a large casserole dish and added my mozzarella cheese and some leftover broccoli.

I then poured the tomato sauce into the dish and stirred it all up. I sprinkled the feta cheese and a little extra olive oil on top.

I cooked the dish for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

OOOOO LA LA!!! This would win the heart of anyone, even those guys hawking bad credit small business loans. Sooooo gooooood.

I served this meal with some broiled Italian bread. We get leftover loaves from Panera Bakery. I slice these in half and spread either olive oil or butter on them, sprinkle garlic powder on them, and grill them under the broiler for about 3 minutes. They are magnificent with the meal, believe me.

*sigh* It’s good to eat Italian food on a snowy winter eve. Manja manja!