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 1/2 c cooked turkey, diced
- 1 Tb extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, grated
- 2 c baby spinach leaves
- 1/3 c light cream cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder
- 1/3 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
Nutritional information is auto-generated and the accuracy is not guaranteed.
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.