22 July 2009


This is a recipe I tried from Allrecipes. I renamed it. (I seem to be doing that a lot lately!)

SCAMP Bake
Ingredients:
8 oz. uncooked penne pasta
2 tbsp vegetable oil
½ lb. portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced
½ cup butter or margarine
¼ cup flour
1 large clove garlic, minced
½ tsp dried basil
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 small chicken breast halves, cooked and diced

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 9x13” baking dish.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place pasta in the pot, cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the mushrooms, cook 1 minute, and set aside. Melt margarine in the saucepan. Mix in flour, garlic, and basil. Gradually mix in milk until thickened. Stir in 1 cup cheese until melted. Remove saucepan from heat, and mix in cooked pasta, mushrooms, chicken, and spinach. Transfer to the prepared baking dish, and top with remaining cheese.

Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly and lightly brown.

Makes 8 servings.


It was originally called Portobello Penne Pasta Casserole. That's kind of wordy and it doesn't reflect all the ingredients. So I am calling it by the acronym SCAMP.

I really didn't change much. I added cooked, diced chicken. I forgot the soy sauce and it tasted just fine, so I left that out of the rewrite. The only other thing I did was to use a fancy flavored cheese. Meijer had Sargento on sale today so I got one that is in their "Bistro Blends" line. It's called Italian Pasta Cheese. It is a combination of mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan. And it has Italian herbs in it as well. It added really great flavor to the dish. I think it might have been a bit bland otherwise. I also seasoned the chicken with Penzey's Tuscan Sunset when I cooked it. That probably helped too.

The only thing I might do differently next time is to not put the cheese on top for the full 20 minutes. It got kind of crunchy on top. I think I might cover it with foil, bake for 15 minutes, uncover, add cheese, and bake an additional 5 minutes. That way the cheese will melt but not get hard.



Before the addition of the cheese.



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1 comment:

  1. From Facebook:

    "A couple weeks ago, I was searching for a quick and easy recipe to take over to a parishioners house. I needed something that would be easy for them to heat up and that a 1 1/2 year old would like. I checked out your notebook and found your SCAMP bake. I changed it just a little. I love portabellas with a smoked gouda sauce. So I used both an Italian cheese blend as well as smoked gouda. I also added bacon! The family loved it and Jon was jealous. I just made it for my family tonight and it was a huge hit! Keep posting your recipes :)"

    (Sarah K.)

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