Penne Pasta with Five Cheeses

It's Easter Sunday, hubby and I are alone at home. Our families are doing their own thing and would not be having lunch together. I was going to bake a few more stuff but there will be no one to eat them. I'll reserve those some other day when our bagets (my nephew JJ and niece Ashley) are here to wipe them out.

I came upon the Barefoot Contessa's Five Cheese Penne Pasta recipe a while back and I have been meaning to make it for the longest time. I made it today but changed the recipe a bit based on the cheeses that I have at home. I did buy some fontina and gorgonzola last week before the long weekend for such purpose.

This dish is a cinch to make! It would make a great addition to your buffet table during a party. Granted, it'll cost you a small fortune to make :-) But hey, it's delicious!

Penne Pasta with Five Cheeses



1/4 Kilo Penne pasta
1 Cup all purpose cream
1/4 Cup crushed tomatoes
100 g Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
100 g Fontina cheese
100 g Edam cheese (Queso de Bola), freshly grated
Grated Mozzarella Cheese
3 Tablespoons Cream Cheese
Basil Leaves, chiffonade
1/4 Butter, cubed

1. Cook pasta for four minutes, you will continue to cook this in the oven with the cheeses. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients except butter. Add the penne pasta. Mix well.
3. Pour the mixture in a glass baking dish. Dot with butter, cover with foil and bake in the oven until bubbly. About 15 minutes or so. You can remove the foil during the last few minutes of cooking if you want the top to brown.

Barefoot Contessa's recipe used romano cheese instead of edam, ricotta instead of cream cheese and fresh mozzarella instead of pasteurized mozzarella. Regardless of the substitutions that I made, the pasta dish turned out great. Surprisingly, the penne dish is not very rich (just a teeeny tiny bit). However, hubby suggested to put crumbled bacon on top. I completely agree with him. I think that it would provide another dimension of flavor and crunch to the dish.

Cholesterol be damned!

Seriously, eat sparingly :-)