Once again my five favorite cohorts and I have gotten together to bring you some delicious recipes. This month, we’re digging into our favorite pasta meals. (Yum….pasta!) Here’s a comfort casserole from me, with links to the other dishes at the bottom of the post.
Triple Cheese Ham Bake: the ultimate comfort food!
Pasta is one of those comfort foods that we Baby Boomers were fed often, especially when times were tough and budgets needed to be stretched. In my family, pasta was usually cooked in the form of spaghetti, tuna casserole, goulash, or macaroni and cheese.
Pasta came in a bag and was boiled until it was almost falling apart. We hadn’t heard of cooking it “al dente”, buying or using fresh pasta, or – heaven forbid – making it ourselves.
This is a basic casserole, perfect for using up leftover ham. You can jazz it up with peas, broccoli, or asparagus tips if you’d like, to make it a complete meal. You could also use leftover chicken instead of ham.
Here’s the beauty of this casserole: you don’t have to boil the pasta! I mentally rate recipes by bowls and pans that will have to be washed. By using this method you will save the effort of washing a large pan and a strainer…a big plus in my book!
| Triple Cheese Ham Bake | Print |
- 1 pound Rotini pasta (uncooked)
- 2-3 cups cubed ham
- 1 small can sliced olives (more to taste)
- ½ cup chopped onions
- 3 cups shredded cheese (I used cheddar, mozzarella, and three-cheese Italian)
- 1½ cup milk
- 1 cup cream
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt
- ¼ teaspoon coarse pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter
- TOPPING:
- 1 cup Panko-style breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- Heat oven to 375 F.
- Pour the dry pasta into a large casserole dish. (I used a 13x9x2" rectangular casserole.).
- Sprinkle ham over the pasta.
- Sprinkle olives and chopped onions over the ham.
- Cover with cheese.
- Heat milk, cream, chicken broth, garlic salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons butter in a small pan until butter is melted. Pour over the cheese.
- Cover tightly with foil. Place pan on baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove foil. Combine Panko and melted butter. Sprinkle over casserole and return to oven for 30 additional minutes.
- Allow casserole to sit for 15 minutes before serving.
Cover the dry pasta with ham.
Add olives and onions and smother with cheese.
Pour liquids over the cheese, cover, and bake.
Let it sit for 15 minutes and serve!
Here are the links for everyone’s pasta recipes. Hope you’ll check them all out!
From Tampa Cake Girl: Greek Pasta Salad
From Hun, What’s For Dinner?: Spring Pasta Salad
From Crumbs in my Mustachio: Caprese Pasta Salad
From Cooking from a SAHM: Ranch Pasta Salad
From Moore or Less Cooking Blog: Mexican Stuffed Pasta Shells.