Monday, November 18, 2019
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| Quick and Easy Chicken Penne Timpano |
Originally published on September 15 2008.
I am not a big fan of leftovers as my friends and neighbours can happily attest. This recipe however, is one of my favorite ways to stretch a leftover pasta dinner into a second and quite delicious meal.
Timpano is a traditional Italian dish comprised of many components from boiled eggs to salami to meatballs to pasta to tomato sauce all baked in a drum shaped baking vessel. Some of you may remember it as the centerpiece dish of the 1996 film "Big Night" about 2 brothers and their failing Italian restaurant.
This much simpler version of a "pasta pie" still has some very good flavours incorporated into it and I have made it on occasion from simple leftover pasta and sauce. Using frozen, pre-made puff pastry adds to the easy preaparation while dressing up a dish that is fit to feed even the most discriminating dinner guests.
I do like to prepare this dish with all of the components cold so I prepare the pasta and sauce in advance and let them cool down before using them. This will greatly aid the crust baking well on the bottom. You can also blind bake the bottom crust for about 10-15 minutes before adding the filling, using parchment paper and some baking weights. This also greatly helps the bottom crust of the Timpano.
To begin you will need about 6 cups of cooked pasta with sauce. My favorite for this recipe is penne pasta with roasted fennel marinara sauce which was recently featured on my blog
http://rockrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/09/penne-with-cicken.html but use your favorite, especially if you have leftovers in the fridge.
2 sheets frozen puff pastry
Roll out one sheet of the puff pastry and place in the bottom and sides of a 9x9 inch glass baking dish. You can blind bake this bottom crust for about 15 minutes, if you prefer.
Add half the pasta and sauce evenly over the bottom crust and top with
1/2 roasted red pepper
1/2 sliced red onion
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms (optional)
2 cups shredded mozzarella
2 cups baby spinach leaves
Top with the remaining half of the cooked pasta and sauce and
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Top with the remaining sheet of puff pastry. Brush the top with an egg wash of desired. Cut four small slits in the top crust and bake for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees F, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and bake for an additional 30 minutes.