Baked Cream Cheese Pasta
Rating
It's EVEN BETTER.
Ingredients
- 1 (8-oz.) block cream cheese
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- ½ small red onion, cut into quarters
- 4 strips bacon, cut into 1" pieces
- ¼ c. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- ½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 4 c. baby spinach
- 12 oz. long pasta
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°. Place cream cheese in middle of a large baking dish. Add tomatoes, red onion, and bacon around it. Sprinkle oregano and red pepper flakes all over, then drizzle oil all over.
- Bake until cream cheese is golden and tomatoes have started to burst, about 40 minutes. Add spinach as soon as it comes out of the oven and stir until cheese is smooth and spinach is wilted.
- While cheese bakes, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to al dente according to package directions. Reserve ½ cup of pasta water, then drain.
- Add pasta to stirred sauce and ¼ cup of reserved pasta water and stir to combine. Add more pasta water to help sauce come together as needed and season with salt and pepper to taste.