Baked Pasta with Spinach
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Italian-style “pasta al forno” is a creamy chicken and pasta casserole baked with spinach and gooey melted cheese. A perfect one-dish dinner for a cozy night in.
This chicken spinach pasta casserole makes a rich and satisfying one-dish dinner, with chopped spinach and all sorts of creamy, cheesy, chicken-y things going on.
Oh — and there’s some dark, leafy spinach in there to round it out. Just what you want on a chilly, busy night and you need to get your greens on!
I’ve always loved that something wonderful happens when dinner comes out of the oven, especially when it’s an all-in-one kind of meal.
Not only do you smell a delicious aroma wafting around the kitchen.
But once you lift the baking dish out of the oven you’re rewarded with the sight and sound of hot, bubbling cream and melting cheese. It’s hard not to love that, right?!
Ingredients for chicken pasta bake
- Fresh spinach or other leafy greens
- Cooked chicken: You’ll need about a cup of cooked chicken. Rotisserie or leftover roasted chicken is perfect.
- Dried pasta: Short tubular pasta shapes such as shells, ziti, penne or rigatoni are great for catching all the sauce in the nooks and crannies. See How to Cook Pasta to learn the steps to perfect al dente pasta.
- Cheese: Use a mixture of grated Parmesan and a cheese that melts well, such as Fontina, Monterey Jack or Havarti.
- Garlic
- Heavy cream
- Use shredded leftover roast chicken (this is my basic go-to recipe) or you can make the process even easier with shredded store-bought rotisserie chicken.
- Once you combine your par-boiled pasta, chicken mixture and sauce ingredients in a large mixing bowl, pop the buttered dish into the oven (or rub with olive oil).
- Bake 12-15 minutes at 475 degrees.
- Sprinkle with additional cheese before serving, if you like.
This deliciously satisfying dish is great for either a hungry couple or four people, with a salad on the side.
Double up the recipe for a larger crowd, using one pound of pasta and two shallow baking dishes or one 2-quart oval baking dish. For a vegetarian meal, omit the chicken.
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Baked Pasta with Spinach
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound (450 g) spinach or other leafy greens
- ½ pound (225 g) dried short pasta, such as mezze rigatoni or penne
- 1 ¼ cups (300 ml) heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon (15 g) chopped garlic
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 cup (140 g) cooked chicken, in bite-sized pieces
- ⅓ cup (55 g) grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup (44 g) shredded Fontina, Monterey Jack or Havarti cheese
- 2 tablespoons (30 g) butter
Instructions
- Heat oven to 475 (245 C) degrees.
- Bring a large pot of water (5 or 6 quarts) to a boil with 1 tablespoon salt.
- Drop spinach into the water and cook 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon to a colander and drain. Put the spinach in a clean kitchen towel (careful, it’s hot), roll it up and squeeze over the sink to remove as much water as you can. Chop the spinach.
- Parboil the pasta in the boiling water until halfway cooked, 7-10 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the pasta. Drain.
- Stir together cream, garlic, salt, pepper, chicken, spinach and the cheeses in a large bowl. Add drained pasta and mix together.
- Smear the butter over a 2-quart gratin or baking dish. Transfer pasta mixture to the gratin dish.
- Bake 12 minutes or so, until the cream is bubbling and edges of the pasta begin to brown. Cool 10 minutes before serving.
Karen’s Notes and Tips
- This is a perfect dinner for either a hungry couple or 4 people with a salad on the side. Double up the recipe for a larger crowd, using 2 gratins or one 2-quart baking dish.
- Leftover roast chicken is ideal for this cheesy baked pasta recipe, or omit the chicken for a vegetarian main dish.
- Alternatively, you can roast a large bone-in, skin-on chicken breast half for 25 minutes at 425 degrees. Cool and shred the meat.
Nutrition
Hey, I’m Karen
Creator of Familystyle Food
I’m a food obsessed super-taster and professionally trained cook ALL about creating elevated dinners with everyday ingredients. Find simplified recipes made from scratch and enjoy incredibly tasty food! Read more about me here.
This was so easy and tasty! I did a mix of Fontina and Havarti cheeses, delicious! I probably should have chopped my garlic more, it was a little strong. Overall I will be making this again.
What a delicious recipe! I didn’t have enough Parmesan so I substituted the missing half with Feta cheese. I’m not really one to mess with perfect recipes (this was perfect), but in the end it was so tasty!
What’s fontina cheese
Hi Susan – Fontina is a type of semisoft Italian cheese that melts beautifully. It has a texture similar to Havarti or mozzarella. If you can’t find Fontina, substitute with whole milk mozzarella.
THIS WAS SO GOOD
I make chicken at least once a week too and am always looking for leftover ideas! This is great. Love the photos as well. The ones taken in Italy are just dreamy 🙂
Your timing on this recipe is spot-on, as I was just skimming my emails–looking for some inspiration for tomorrow night’s dinner–using tonight’s roast chicken without a trip to the store. This will be perfect!
The photos are lovely too, and just the thing on this drizzly, dreary, evening. They remind me that soon, it will be time for Prosecco on the patio!
Thanks!
Hi Lorrie. Wow, I don’t always have good timing, am so glad to provide inspiration 🙂
Ah, yes, those patio days are coming. I can actually see my patio emerging under the snow outside my back door – hurray!
I so know what you mean! When I put out the recycling one frosty morning last week, the birds were singing away like crazy. It “sounded” like spring — even with a driveway covered with ice and snow.
PS I’m crazy for spinach right now, your dish looks delicious!
The birds got it right, don’t they? I think the craving for greens must be a spring tonic kind of thing. We all need it bad!