Recipe: Baked Penne with Three Snooty Cheeses

I don't know why I was craving this but I was.  I was craving this for literally weeks.  I guess it's a comfort food thing.  Things have been a little intense lately and when things get intense we want familiar and comforting foods.  In a lot of families the comfort foods are things like meatloaf (I have no idea why), mac and cheese, that sort of thing.  I guess baked penne is kind of like mac and cheese, in a completely different way.  A way that involves sauce, because everyone knows that the only purpose for pasta is to convey sauce from plate to palate.  Of course, I couldn't have it just with ricotta and mozzarella.  I really wanted some different kinds of cheeses.  These cheeses do take the dish away from Things I Ate When I Was A Kid, which I guess means that it no longer qualifies as comfort food, but I don't really care.  I wanted them, and I got them.

And now it's time for a ramble about Snooty Cheeses.  I'll admit it.  I like them.  Yes, I like "normal" cheese too.  I'm not a cheese connoisseur, I don't order cheese platters and sit around and critique them with my nose in the air and a little notebook.  I do however know what I like, and I've found that very often what I like does not come from cows.  I like goat's milk and sheep's milk cheeses.  I like the unique flavor that they impart to a dish and I especially like their scent.  This probably means that there is something deeply wrong with me and that's okay, but I find something more satisfying about a dish if the cheese is goat or sheep cheese than if it's cow's milk cheese.  I don't know if that means that I eat less of the dish, because I feel more satisfied with what I've eaten, but I know that it makes me happier and I suppose that's the important thing.  

Anyway, you can use whatever sauce you like for this dish.  This one here is more or less the one that I used, but the one with olives here is just fine too.  I added the greens because I had them on hand and because I wanted to make the dish a little healthier.  

Baked Penne with Three Snooty Cheeses (serves about 20; approx. $2.11)

2 boxes whole wheat penne

6 cups tomato sauce (approx.)

1 bunch turnip greens, washed (not dried) and chopped

1 bunch collard greens, washed (not dried) and chopped

1 wheel bucheron, crumbled

8 ounces fresh pecorino, thinly sliced

2 ounces aged pecorino, grated

8 ounces goat gouda, thinly sliced

Equipment:

• Large pasta pot
• Frying pan
• Colander
• 2 roasting pans

1. Preheat your oven to 425︒.
2. Prepare the pasta according to the package instructions.  Drain.
3. Heat the frying pan over medium heat.
4. Add the greens and cook until wilted.  The water from washing the greens should suffice to keep them from burning.  Remove from heat.
5. Line the bottom of the pans with pasta.  
6. Layer a bit of sauce over the pasta.
7. Add some the slices of pecorino, then sprinkle a little of the grated pecorino. 
8. Add about a quarter of the greens to each pan. 
9. Repeat steps 5 - 8, replacing the fresh pecorino with bucheron.
10. Repeat steps 5 - 8 again, only layer the gouda slices on top of the casserole instead.  Sprinkle with the grated pecorino.
11. Bake until the gouda is golden and bubbly, about 30 minutes.  
12. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.  

Comments

[Erica]

This dish looks comforting and delicious!I love the mixture of cheese....Great recipe!