Penne For Your Thoughts
When it comes to food, there are a lot of things that I am not a big fan of. There's the unholy-three (pickles, mayo, and mustard) and then there are things that I have varying levels of distaste for. Most of those are from being allergic to them when I was young to just not caring for them. Cream and cheese based pasta sauces are a group that I actually tried when I was younger and just didn't care for. I still have that dislike of what I call white sauces and tend to stick to tomato based only.
So it was quite a shock to see what Jen was making next:
Penne with 5 Cheeses
Kosher salt
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup crushed tomatoes in thick tomato puree
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano (1 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup shredded imported Italian fontina (1 1/2 ounces)
1/4 cup crumbled Italian Gorgonzola (1 1/2 ounces)
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
1/4 pound fresh mozzarella Shredded
6 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 pound imported penne rigate pasta
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
- Preheat Oven 500 degrees.
- Bring 5 Quartz of salted water to a boil.
- Combine all the ingredients except the penne and butter in a large mixing bowl. Mix well.
- Drop the penne into the boiling water and parboil for 10 minutes. Drain well in a colander and add to the ingredients in the mixing bowl, tossing to combine.
- Put the mixture in a casserole dish and dot with butter and bake until bubbly and brown on top, 10-15 minutes.
I have to admit that I liked this recipe. Jenn ended up forgetting to add the ricotta so ours was only 4 cheeses but I don't think it really made much of a difference. Even though I did like it, this one did bad things to me. I am somewhat lactose intolerant. Some days I can eat a gallon of ice cream while chasing it with a gallon of milk and nothing will come from it. Some days if sprinkle an ounce of cheese on a salad I will think that God punch me in the stomach. This recipe caused a great big gut punch. Didn't help that I decided to bring some in for lunch the next day not thinking about it as well. So unfortunately I think this one is going to go on the list of good recipes that we won't be trying again just because there is nothing worse than feeling your insides moving around.