Penne Rustica

When Tom and I were first married I was obsessed with Macaroni Grill. Well, it's just one of those places I wanted to go out to eat because I LOVED their bread. And dipping it in the olive oil & balsamic vinegar. YUM! But for the first few times I went there I never really liked any of the entrees I ordered. Then I discovered Penne Rustica. It made me love going there even more. Tom found the recipe online years ago and made it and it was good but I never made it again. Until now. I found the recipe again here at your home based mom. On this blog she mentions that it's a great meal to take to people because it's so good and because it makes a ton. I had to take a meal to a friend so I decided to try this recipe out and it was AMAZING. Even my friend's husband wondered what it was and told me it tasted like it was from Olive Garden. So if you need a wow meal this is it. This recipe looks harder than it is. It's really easy. I added my own adjustments to it. One thing to really watch is how the sauce tastes before you add it all together. You'll want the sauce almost to be too salty because it's going to season everything else. Adjust the salt amount before you put the sauce with the pasta and such. This recipe also calls for marsala wine and it's really what gives it the wonderful flavor. If you don't want to use the wine there is a substitute in the recipe for it but I don't know how it turns out. Also, I did consider substituting a green pepper for the red since they're so much cheaper but I'm glad I didn't. The red pepper is such a nice addition and I don't think the green would be as good. The red pepper is just so much sweeter and I think the green might be weird in this recipe. Like I said before this recipe makes alot. The recipe on your home based mom is half of the original recipe and she says it makes enough for 2 9x13 pans and 1 8x8. I halved her recipe (so it's really a quarter of the original recipe) since I didn't want that much but it's still a ton. Here's my version:

Penne Rustica
3 grilled chicken breasts (season with generously with garlic salt then grill on barbecue for best flavor)
½ pack thick bacon
24 oz. (1 1/2 boxes) penne pasta
1 large red bell pepper- quartered then sliced thin
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
½ tsp paprika

Gratinata Sauce:
1 T butter
1 T chopped garlic
1/2 cup marsala wine OR 1/4 cup apple juice + 1 tbsp red wine vinegar +enough chicken broth to equal 1/2 cup
1 tsp dijon or dry mustard
2 tsp salt
2 tsp rosemary
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cups heavy cream

Sauté garlic in butter in large pan for a few minutes, careful not to burn. Add marsala wine and reduce by half (takes a couple minutes.) Add mustard, salt, rosemary, cayenne pepper, and heavy cream and reduce again cooking until it almost boils. Make sure sauce is almost too salty as it needs to season everything else. Cook pasta according to directions. Cook bacon. Slice chicken into medium-bite size pieces. Combine sauce, cooked pasta, diced chicken, cooked bacon, bell pepper, paprika, & 1 tsp rosemary and mix thoroughly. Spread in pans. Top with remaining rosemary and parmesan cheese.

Bake @ 475 for 10 minutes. If frozen, thaw in refrigerator the day of. Cover with foil and bake @ 375 for 1 hour. Remove foil during the last 15 minutes.