Cheesy Penne with Turkey & Spinach is a light and quick one-pot meal to serve any night of the week.
Now I don’t know about you, but every Thanksgiving, I buy the biggest monster of a turkey that I can find. Why? Because when I go to all the trouble to make a beauty like this, I want LOTS of leftovers for future meals. Need to know how to make PERFECT turkey? Find out how → HERE
To begin, you’ll need 1 1/2 cups of diced, cooked turkey. You could also use some rotisserie chicken as an alternative if you like.
In a Dutch oven cook a pound of penne pasta according to package directions.
When the pasta is done cooking, scoop out a half cup of the pasta water and set it aside for now.
Pour your pasta into the colander to drain.
Back in the Dutch oven, drizzle in a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.
Add in 3 cloves of grated garlic and cook that over medium heat for just a minute.
Toss in 2 cups of baby spinach leaves.
When the leaves have wilted, add in your diced turkey along with 1/3 cup of light cream cheese and your pasta water.
Let that all melt together and sprinkle in 1/2 teaspoon each of sea salt, black pepper, and ancho chile powder.
Add the pasta back into the pot, add in 1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese and stir it all together.
Serve topped with a little extra parmesan on top if you like.
Enjoy!
Cheesy Penne with Turkey and Spinach
Ingredients
- 1 lb penne pasta
- 1 ½ c cooked turkey, diced
- 1 Tb extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, grated
- 2 c baby spinach leaves
- ⅓ c light cream cheese
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ancho chile powder
- ⅓ c parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- To begin, in a Dutch oven cook a pound of penne pasta according to package directions. When the pasta is done cooking, scoop out a half cup of the pasta water and set it aside for now. Pour your pasta into the colander to drain.
- Back in the Dutch oven, drizzle in a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Add in the grated garlic and let it cook for just a minute.
- Add in the baby spinach and let it cook until wilted, about 2 minutes.
- Add in the diced turkey, light cream cheese, and reserved pasta water. Let those melt all together.
- Stir in the salt, pepper, and ancho chile powder.
- Add the pasta back into the pot along with the parmesan cheese - stir it all together.
- Serve topped with a little extra parmesan if you like.
Enjoy!
Nutrition
If nutritional values are provided for this recipe, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands of ingredients you use. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste or for serving. If nutritional values are very important to you, I suggest using your favorite nutritional calculating tool with the brands you use.
Unit Conversions:
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i made this last night,it was really good, thank you, i love your recipes . Good ideas and all well explained and with pictures . I am happy i found you.
Thank you Isabel! I love hearing back when people make my recipes :) So glad you liked it!
Thank you Constance for nice and easy recipe.
I love it! Especially because I have some leftover turkey in the freezer and I know exactly what to use it in now.