Sometimes you see something on the shelf at the grocery store and just think – I need to make something with that! That is exactly what happen with I saw Ditalini Pasta last week. I have seen it before but never tried any thing with it. So I decided to bring together some chicken, spinach, and bacon in a creamy sauce to create Cheesy Ditalini.
A big bowl of pasta can be so comforting. Making a simple sauce and adding in the bacon and spinach in addition to the chicken will make it seem like this meal is super fancy – when really it’s super easy to make.
You could also make this dish with some rotisserie chicken if you wanted to speed it up even more. I know a lot of people have success getting a couple of rotisserie chickens on Sunday – shredding all the meat off of them right away. Then portioning them into 2-4 meals throughout the week. It can be a real time saver.
Cheesy Ditalini
Ingredients
- ½ lb Bacon cut into ½inch pieces
- 3 cup Spinach chopped
- 1½ lb Ditalini Pasta
- 1½ lb Chicken Breast
- 1 qt Chicken Broth
For the Sauce
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 3 Garlic Cloves minced
- 3 tbsp Flour
- 2 cups Chicken Broth
- 2 cups Heavy Cream
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Basil
- 2 cup Parmesan Cheese shredded
Instructions
- Prepare all of the ingredients. Start water boiling for pasta
- In a pot over medium heat, add chicken broth and chicken. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove chicken from pot and shred.
- In a frying pan over medium high heat, add bacon. Cook until crispy and remove to paper towel covered plate. Reserve 1 tbsp of bacon grease.
- Add pasta to boiling water and cook as directed on package. Drain in colander.
- In a large sauce pan over medium heat, add butter and reserved bacon. Once melted add garlic and cook for 3 minutes then add flour. Cook for 3 minutes more than whisk in chicken broth. Cook for 3 minutes more and whisk in salt, basil, and heavy cream. Cook for 3 minutes more and add cheese. Once melted add chicken, ¾ of bacon and spinach. Stir to cook at let cook for 3 minutes.
- In a shallow bowl, place a portion of pasta and ladle sauce over top. Sprinkle with remaining bacon.
Estelle Forrest self-published this cookbook after a lot of playing around in the kitchen. You can purchase your own copy here:
AVAILABLE IN PRINT OR KINDLE eBOOK VERSIONS
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