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This is the first of what I expect to be many experiments. I haven’t fleshed this out to an exact recipe and will probably modify it as I repeat the same dish.

I wanted to make some type of baked Penne dish today. I started the pasta cooking a little earlier than I should, but they hydrated back up while baking. I decided to go with a white sauce and use mushrooms and broccoli. So here we go:

• 2 tbsp butter
• olive oil
• 2 cups fresh, chopped mushrooms
• 1/8 cup chopped onion (I would use much more if Amy didn’t have onion issues)
• 2 cloves finely diced garlic
• 1/2 cup flour
• 4 tsp Minor’s Chicken base*
• 2 cup water*
• 1.5 cup milk
• 16 oz package of frozen broccoli (fairly small cut)
• 1/2 cup misc cheese (about 1/2 white Mexican and 1/2 Parmesan, just the other white cheeses I had on hand)
• salt to taste (I didn’t add any, because the stock had enough)
• 1 tsp ground white pepper (to taste, I love pepper, so this might be too much)
• 14.5 oz package of Penne, prepared.
• 1 cup cooked, cubed ham
• 3 cups cooked shredded chicken.
• 3 cups shredded Swiss cheese

* I use the Minor’s Chicken Base that I get at GFS, because it is much better than standard store bought chicken stock. If you don’t have access to this, you can use 2 cups chicken broth or stock instead of these two.

Prep the oven at 350. Might work fine at other temps, but I had a meatloaf cooking at 350 when I started this, so I thought that was fine.

Add butter to medium heat sauce pan. Toss in onion and garlic, then chopped mushrooms. I like butter for the flavor, but add more olive oil when needed for cooking. I keep some in a little drizzle bottle by the stove. As the mushrooms soak up some of the butter, you will need to add olive oil. Cook until the mushrooms are tender.  You also need a little more fat than the butter to thicken the sauce with the flour.   Sprinkle the 1/2 cup flour over the vegetables.  Add in the milk, base and water (or just milk and stock if not using base).  Stir the flour completely in and bring to a boil to thicken.

Once sauce thickens, season to taste with the spices. I put in a touch of Italian seasoning, which went against the effort of using white pepper to keep the white sauce pure, but I couldn’t help it.  Stir in the broccoli and all cheese, except the Swiss. Once the cheese melts, add the ham and chicken.  I used more chicken than ham, because I try to limit my ham. It adds flavor enough with 1 cup. You can split it more evenly if you want.

In a deep 13×9 or larger pan, put in about half the sauce (but try to get more of the chunks in the bottom). Layer in the cooked Penne. Use about half the Swiss over the pasta. Pour the rest of the sauce over the pasta and top with the rest of the Swiss.

Bake until the top browns slightly, around 30 minutes.